Norway sees no reason to exploit Arctic’s gas and oil

Technological and logistical factors are likely to preserve the Arctic region’s huge reserves of oil and gas from exploitation for decades to come, said Norway’s deputy foreign minister Liv Monica Stubholt.

“I think we would do well not to underestimate the difficulties” involved in any exploitation of the high north’s natural resources, Stubholt told. And as far as drilling in the Arctic is concerned, “the technological challenges are (still) insurmountable… I think we have decades ahead of us before the technology to do this in a safe and sustainable way is there.”


Stubholt was speaking a day after Canada — one of the five countries with coastlines bordering the Arctic, along with Norway — raised the stakes in any future battle to secure mineral exploitation rights, arranging for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to visit the region. Earlier, another of the quintet, Russia, sent a submarine to the ocean floor at the North Pole, planting a flag on part of the sea bed that it claims is an extension of the Siberian continental shelf.

Russia, which first submitted its ownership claim to a UN-affiliated international commission in 2001, was “acting in compliance with international law” by collecting evidence to strengthen that claim, Stubholt said.

However, “I would say that it is important to avoid antagonistic language with regard to the Arctic,” she added.

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