UPDATE 1-Norway offers 18 more offshore blocks in 2008

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OSLO, May 9 (Reuters) - Norway will offer 18 additional offshore blocks for oil and gas exploration in this year's licensing round for mature parts of the Norwegian continental shelf, energy officials said on Friday.

The 2008 Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) has been extended with four blocks in the Barents Sea, three blocks in the Norwegian Sea and 11 blocks in the North Sea beyond the area in APA 2007, the oil ministry said in a statement.

"The area announced in APA 2008 consists mainly of returned blocks where petroleum activities haÖŸ previously taken place," it said, adding that the offer would "provide new opportunities to other companies and contribute to a stable level of activity on the Norwegian continental shelf."

The deadline for submitting applications is Oct. 3, and awarding of the licences is expected to take place in late 2008 or early 2009, the Petroleum and Energy Ministry ministry said.

Norway aims to attract new and smaller companies to its shelf through the APA scheme, which gives newcomers a chance to make smaller discoveries that can be linked to existing infrastructure and might not merit separate development.

"It is therefore good resource management to discover and develop these resources before existing infrastructure in connection to other fields is shut down," the ministry said.

StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) is by far the largest operator on the Norwegian shelf, with some remaining oil majors sharing the rest with relatively small start-ups from Norway, the UK and beyond.

Norway's oil output is expected to drop to a little over 2 million barrep