Norway Confirms Arctic Oil Exploration Drive
November 19 2020 - 8:13AM
Dow Jones News
By Dominic Chopping
Norway on Thursday said it will offer large swathes of the
Arctic for oil exploration, confirming plans it outlined in
June.
The country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Petroleum
Directorate said 136 blocks will be offered in the 25th licensing
round, with 125 of the blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea and 11 in
the Norwegian Sea.
"Around 200,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in
the petroleum sector in Norway," Minister of Petroleum and Energy
Tina Bru said.
"New discoveries are necessary to ensure continued activity,
ripple effects, employment and governmental revenues throughout the
country."
The new production licenses are expected to be awarded in the
second quarter of 2021.
Environmental groups including Greenpeace have brought legal
cases against Norway's previous decisions to grant oil-exploration
licenses but have been defeated in local Norwegian courts. However,
the Supreme Court of Norway last week finished hearing a case
questioning the legality of an earlier licensing round in the
Arctic and is currently deliberating.
The ministry said Thursday that all petroleum activities take
place under stringent requirements for the protection of the
environment.
Norway converts its vast oil wealth into global assets through
its trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, known as the oil fund.
It was set up in the 1990s partly to shield the country's budget
from oil-price fluctuations, and has grown to become the largest
such fund in the world.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 19, 2020 07:58 ET (12:58 GMT)
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