State-owned oil company Equinor is disappointed while climate activists are relieved: Norway’s Petroleum Directorate has reported that a second well drilled by Equinor and its partners in a once-promising portion of the eastern Barents Sea was “classified as dry,” and has now been “permanently plugged and abandoned.” The failure to find oil in the well drilled […]
‘Norway buys itself out of climate vow’
June 17, 2019
NEWS ANALYSIS: The timing was ironic at best: Norway’s state-owned oil company Equinor announced a new oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea on Monday, just as the government was vowing to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. The government’s deal with the EU, however, will allow Norway to account for some […]
Climate strikers defy the state’s snub
June 11, 2019
Norwegian school students aren’t giving up their efforts to make politicians more responsive to their climate demands, especially after they were snubbed by the Parliament late last week. They’re already planning a new, nationwide strike shortly after school starts up again, on August 30. “The government doesn’t have climate goals that are good enough, and […]
Collision spurred oil platform evacuation
June 7, 2019
More than 200 people on board Equinor’s Statfjord A oil platform in the North Sea were evacuated during the night after a supply vessel collided with the platform. The collision occurred just as Equinor is under regulatory pressure to correct repeated environmental violations at another nearby oil field. Equinor wrote in a press release Friday […]
Debt adds to the oil dependency threat
June 5, 2019
NEWS ANALYSIS: Norway’s dependency on its oil and gas industry isn’t the only thing threatening the economy. After a week of falling oil prices, state financial regulators are also sounding alarms over Norwegians’ record high household debt at a time when interest rates are due to rise. “The household debt burden, measured in terms of […]
Oil-happy minister defies own experts
June 3, 2019
Oil & Energy Minister Kjell-Børge Freiberg set off more sparks heading into the weekend, when he invited oil companies to apply for 90 new exploration licenses on oil and gas fields his ministry is opening on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Freiberg is thus once again defying the state’s own professional advisers, in addition to all […]
Sun is shining on small leftist parties
May 28, 2019
NEWS ANALYSIS: The climate is good these days, in every sense of the word, for two of Norway’s small parties that literally are blossoming. Both the Reds and the Greens are fueled by a new gush of anti-oil sentiment, and the feeling that the “established” parties in Parliament just aren’t responding. Political developments in Norway, […]
‘Prime Minister is not listening to us’
May 24, 2019
UPDATED: Thousands of Norwegian school students joined youth all over the world in cutting classes and demonstrating once again on Friday. Their latest school strikes against passive politicians are another effort to get their leaders to lead in the effort to cut carbon emissions, and Prime Minister Erna Solberg was their main target. The students […]
Crown Prince backs climate strikes
May 24, 2019
Thousands of Norwegian school students were mounting demonstrations around the country again on Friday, to demand that politicians do more to stop climate change. Now they’ve won the support of Crown Prince Haakon, who told a German magazine this week that he thinks the school climate strikes taking place around the world are “enormously important.” […]
New probe sought into oil rig disaster
May 21, 2019
Calls are going out for a new investigation into Norway’s worst offshore rig accident ever, and they’re getting support from a former prime minister and a trade union leader. The capsizing of the Alexander Kielland rig in 1980 killed 123 workers on board, and calls for a new probe come just as Norway’s petroleum industry […]
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