Open more offshore, firms tell new Norway minister

Norway’s oil industry on Tuesday called on the new Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen to open up quickly more area for offshore oil and gas exploration.

With oil output from ageing North Sea fields in decline, the industry sees access to new acreage as the best way to sustain a boom which has turned Norway from the poorest country in the Nordic region to the richest in less than two generations.
The lobby group said exploration drilling had picked up on the Norwegian shelf this year, with 26 wells begun in 2008 against 32 in all of last year. Twenty-two of the wells have already been completed an 15 of them struck oil or gas.

Riis-Johansen’s Centre Party opposes the opening of large swathes of Norway’s Arctic Seas off the Lofoten islands and in surrounding areas for oil and gas exploration.

The centre-left government has decided to delay any decisions about the issue, which pits environmental concerns against oil interests, until the next parliamentary term after elections in late 2009.

Reuters