Norway urges energy giants to ramp up search for Arctic oil and gas

The Norwegian authorities is looking on vitality giants to ramp up oil and fuel exploration tasks in distant areas just like the Arctic Barents Sea, defying a way of palpable frustration amongst local weather campaigners because the Nordic nation seeks to shore up its place as Europe’s largest fuel provider.

The rethink in technique comes as Norway strives to maintain up with rising demand for its vitality exports within the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Norway final yr overtook Russia as Europe’s largest pure fuel provider and says it’s now in search of to take care of Europe’s vitality safety by exploring the Barents Sea for additional assets.

Talking within the city of Hammerfest late final month, Norway’s Petroleum and Power Minister Terje Aasland reportedly mentioned that the business ought to “go away no stone unturned” of their pursuit for contemporary hydrocarbon discoveries within the Barents Sea.

Aasland even described this coverage because the oil and fuel business’s “social duty,” in response to Bloomberg, saying undiscovered assets may assist to take care of the nation’s future manufacturing ranges.

Norway oil and fuel big Equinor and Vår Energi, one of many nation’s largest exploration and manufacturing corporations, confirmed to CNBC that the minister lately issued this name.

A spokesperson for Norway’s petroleum and vitality ministry, in the meantime, mentioned that the message to vitality giants was “to discover all financial oil and fuel assets throughout the obtainable areas, together with within the Barents Sea.”

Norway has pumped oil and fuel from its continental shelf, a comparatively shallow part of seabed off its coast, for greater than 50 years and it at present has a number of oil and fuel fields both in manufacturing or below improvement.

It’s estimated that roughly two-thirds of the nation’s undiscovered oil assets lies off the nation’s northern coast within the Arctic’s Barents Sea. And but, the need amongst vitality corporations to discover the Barents Sea for oil and fuel has been comparatively subdued lately, partially attributable to excessive prices and restricted alternatives to export fuel to markets.

Firstly of the yr, nevertheless, Norway mentioned it deliberate to supply vitality corporations a file variety of oil and fuel exploration blocks within the Arctic.

Environmental campaigners at Buddies of the Earth Norway, WWF-Norway and Greenpeace Norway have described the nation’s lobbying for continued oil and fuel growth as “embarrassing,” “extraordinarily reckless” and “a center finger to the Paris Settlement.”

“Oil drilling within the Arctic is like pouring gasoline on a fireplace,” Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, advised CNBC by way of electronic mail.

“Each Norway and the oil companies have to cease cynically exploiting Russia’s struggle in Ukraine,” Pleym mentioned. “The aggressive and grasping oil coverage of Norway don’t solely consolidate Oslo’s place as a prime vitality provider to Europe, it locks a complete continent into future dependency on fossil fuels. The choice to grease and fuel will not be extra oil and fuel, it’s extra vitality effectivity and renewable vitality.”

The burning of fossil fuels, resembling coal, oil and fuel, is the chief driver of the local weather disaster.

Norway has been one of many world’s prime crude producers for the previous half-century due to its gigantic North Sea petroleum deposits — the spoils of which have been used to supply a strong security internet for present and future generations.

Oil and fuel corporations imagine the Barents Sea can play an vital function in making certain the long-term market entry for fuel, noting the event of the assets on this space ought to match throughout the EU’s Arctic coverage.

A spokesperson for Equinor advised CNBC that the corporate hoped to see “new engaging acreage within the Barents Sea.” They added, “we wish to probe for extra and we predict we are going to discover extra.”

Responding to the environmental issues of Arctic oil and fuel drilling, a spokerson at Equinor mentioned, “We now have an extended monitor file of offshore operations in harsh environments with excessive requirements on security, safety and sustainability.”

“We all know the Barents area properly and work along with the authorities to plan and execute our operations in a sustainable method with as little as attainable affect on the atmosphere.”

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the federal government company answerable for the regulation of petroleum assets, lately lamented the shortage of exploration within the Barents Sea, saying its calculations present that such exercise “is worthwhile in all ocean areas.”

Individually, a mid-April research from fuel infrastructure operator Gassco mentioned constructing a pipeline to move fuel produced within the Arctic Barents Sea may very well be price re-examining as a result of nation stepping up its fuel exports to Europe.

A spokesperson for Vår Energi described the Barents Sea as a strategic hub for oil and fuel drilling, one that gives a “manageable, ice-free” a part of the Arctic with climate and local weather situations like different components of the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

It is because of this, Vår Energi says, that the Barents Sea shouldn’t be in comparison with different Arctic areas characterised by harsher situations, including that the corporate abides by strict environmental laws.

Local weather marketing campaign teams refute this logic, warning that any oil spill on this space would spell catastrophe to the wealthy however acutely susceptible ecosystems and marine life.

“Russia’s struggle towards Ukraine doesn’t justify an extra push for Arctic oil and fuel, as it might take round 15 years to go from exploration to manufacturing,” Truls Gulowsen, chief of Buddies of the Earth Norway, advised CNBC.

“Norway is making an enormous revenue off vitality costs in Europe and few international locations have such a robust foundation to guide on local weather coverage,” Gulowsen mentioned.

Ragnhild Waagaard, local weather and vitality lead in WWF-Norway, mentioned it’s comprehensible governments wish to tackle the vitality disaster and excessive vitality prices inflicting actual hardship for many individuals however warned that doubling down on fossil fuels is not going to assist.

“International locations ought to quickly increase their uptake of renewable vitality, enhance vitality effectivity and cut back demand for vitality. The alternatives we make now, and the best way governments reply to the evolving vitality disaster, will decide whether or not we succeed or fail,” Waagaard mentioned.