Opposition grows to Norway’s Arctic oil search

Perched 200km north of the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten islands in Norway paint a picture-perfect image of serenity. High mountains plunge into the sea, villages of brightly painted wooden houses nestle on the shores of sheltered bays, while fishing boats pull gently on their anchors. But underneath the surface, the Lofoten islands are the latest battleground for the right to exploit the polar region’s oil and gas resources, with local fishermen and environmentalists hoping to defeat a multibillion pound industry.
As Norway’s oil reserves in the North Sea are emptying – the country is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter – it is now looking to the Arctic north in search of new oil riches. And the Lofoten islands appear promising. Between May and September, Norway’s state oil agency will be mapping the seabed outside the archipelago in search of hydrocarbon deposits, as it already did in 2008.

“We expect the area to hold 20% of all remaining undiscovered reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf,” explained Odd-Ragnar Lorentsen from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

This view is shared by the oil companies, which are not currently allowed to explore in the region. “There is a potential for oil and gas off the Lofoten,” said Oerjan Birkeland, exploration manager for the Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro. “We would like the region to be opened [for drilling]. We must have the ability to explore.”

But not everyone is welcoming a potential oil boom in the region.

Guardian