Power returns to Lofoten

A massive power outage in Lofoten and Vesterålen that left around 50,000 residents of northern Norway without electricity Tuesday night finally ended Wednesday morning. The problem was traced to an explosion and fire at a transformer station at Kilbotn outside Harstad. Statnett, in charge of the region’s electricity network, confirmed Wednesday that power had returned [...]

Energy high on Merkel’s agenda

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made another whirlwind visit to Oslo on Wednesday, with a delegation of energy executives in tow. It was her fifth meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in just the past nine months, and energy and economic issues were on the agenda. Norway is Germany’s second-largest supplier of natural gas after [...]

Thousands hit by new power failure

Nearly 24,000 households and businesses in Oslo were without power Tuesday morning because of a technical problem at a transformer station at Ulven on the city’s east side. It was the second major power outage in the Norwegian capital in the past week. Officials at Hafslund, the company responsible for the electricity network in Oslo, [...]

Calls rise for less oil sector activity

Unhappy oil rig workers aren’t the only ones calling for a reduction in the tempo of oil exploration and production on Norway’s continental shelf. They have the full support of not only environmentalists but also an acclaimed researcher at state statistics bureau SSB, who fears the boom in the oil sector is putting too much [...]

New oil resources fuel skepticism

As the oil and gas industry eyes new resources in Norway’s offshore Arctic, and celebrated another new discovery in the North Sea this week, comes word that a majority of Norwegians remain skeptical towards more oil and gas exploration and extraction. A recent survey shows that 62 percent want the government to slow down the [...]

REC closes remaining plants in Norway

Solar energy company Renewable Energy Corp (REC)  has decided to shut down its two remaining plants at Herøya in Telemark County, throwing another 500 employees out of work. The plants produced components used to make solar cells, but costs hit their competitiveness, especially against Chinese rivals. “We are very sorry that our state authorities have [...]

Even more oil found off Norway

Wintershall, the largest internationally active German crude oil and natural gas producer, has struck oil at one of its licenses in a mature area of the North Sea. The discovery from a wildcat well at the Skarfjell prospect may be worth more than NOK 100 billion. A 30-year-old Norwegian geophysicist is getting much of the credit [...]

Troms energy firm in more trouble

Troms Kraft, the largest energy company in Northern Norway, has reported accounting irregularities at its Swedish subsidiary, Kraft & Kultur, that suggest revenue has been inflated by as much as NOK 1.5 billion (USD 270 million). It’s the latest revelation of financial trouble for the firm in the past year. Oddbjørn Schei, chief executive of [...]

Sun sets on REC plants in Norway

Leaders of the once-shining but now embattled solar firm Renewable Energy Corp (REC) have given up efforts to maintain production at four plants in Norway. Permanent closures will throw 700 more people out of work in Porsgrunn, Narvik and Glomfjord. The news Wednesday morning was not entirely unexpected but terrible for the REC employees who [...]

Latest Statoil deal sparks protests

Environmentalists were quick to criticize Norwegian oil company Statoil’s latest overseas venture. Its bid to take over Brigham Exploration Co, which runs oil exploration and extraction operations on the US prairie, is among the largest acquisitions in Norwegian history. Statoil is paying nearly NOK 25 billion (around USD 4.5 billion) in cash to buy up [...]

Oslo Stock Exchange continues fall

The Oslo Stock Exchange’s main index fell by 5.65 percent to 344.39 by the end of trading on Monday, as turbulence in the international financial markets continued and predictions that a new financial crisis was on the way gathered pace. In step with other European indexes, the Oslo Stock Exchange rallied during the morning after [...]

Statoil in massive North Sea discovery

Norwegian part state-owned oil and gas enterprise Statoil has found new oil deposits in the North Sea that could represent the largest new discoveries in the past 20 years, eclipsing massive finds already revealed in 2011. The 65 meter oil column located in sandstone from the Jurassic period, estimated to contain at least 200 to [...]

Economy prospers despite EU crises

UPDATED: Revised forecasts suggest that the Norwegian economy will do better than originally expected this year, giving many consumers more money than they may otherwise have had. Nonetheless, Norway is not immune to the destabilizing forces in the world economy as the Oslo Stock Exchange fell for the seventh day in a row on Thursday [...]

Part of Sellafield nuclear plant closes

Part of the British nuclear energy plant Sellafield is to be closed down as a consequence of the after-effects of the Fukushima incident in Japan earlier this year. Although 600 British jobs were lost, many organizations in Norway have welcomed the move given concerns about the carriage of nuclear waste from the plant by ocean [...]

Workers abandon bankrupt carmaker

Norway’s long-struggling electric carmaker Think has survived several earlier bankruptcies but now its future as a Norwegian firm seems to be over. Think’s laid-off engineers have lost faith following the latest bankruptcy in June and reports that the company’s remains have been sold to Russian investor Boris Zingarevich and the companies Ener1 and Valmet. Newspaper [...]

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