Drilling
(Bloomberg) – Norway is putting pressure on the European Union to remove the moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, where almost two-thirds of its petroleum resources are located.
Norwegian politicians, civil servants, and representatives from the environmental and industry sectors are increasingly visiting Brussels to influence EU institutions as the bloc prepares to unveil a new Arctic policy by the end of September.
Norway, which never joined the EU, is Western Europe’s largest exporter of oil and gas. Production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf meets roughly 30% of the EU and UK’s gas demand.
“Norway is very active and good at making its voice heard,” EU’s special envoy for the Arctic, Claude Veron-Reville, said in an interview in Brussels on Wednesday. “Norway knows very well how to intervene; they are very well organised and very present,” she said.
So far this year, 11 ministers have visited Brussels from Norway, discussing topics ranging from the Arctic to trade and from energy and space.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has given Norway new arguments with which to persuade Brussels to drop the moratorium on new Artic drilling, as the EU is becoming increasingly dependent on Norway’s gas exports.
The crux of the matter is climate and the environment. Critics argue that the Arctic region, which is warming three to four times faster than the global average, is more vulnerable to exploration activity and that more drilling risks the transition away from fossil fuels.
The short-term energy crisis is not a good reason to open up the Arctic for drilling, critics say.
The EU’s ban on new drilling, put in place in 2021, is in line with the bloc’s climate obligations, Veron-Reville said, adding that the decision to remove it is ultimately up to the EU member states. The EU defines the Arctic as the region above the polar circle.
However, Norway disagrees with what this definition means for drilling.
“There are no climate arguments for treating oil and gas produced north and south of a certain line differently,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Bloomberg. Eide said Norway’s policy is also to refrain from drilling “up in the icy wasteland” because of environmental concerns, but that Norway has a substantial population and active petroleum activity in the Arctic.
Norway’s Arctic drilling operations are in the Barents Sea, which is situated above Norway’s northernmost coastline. Norway has also argued that warmer Gulf Stream waters make conditions there comparable to those further south on the shelf – a consequence of climate change driven in large part by emissions from the fossil industry.
Norwegian politicians, civil servants, and environmental and industry lobbyists are increasingly visiting Brussels to influence EU institutions as the bloc gears up to unveil a new Arctic policy by the end of September.
