Norway oil directorate expects Arctic opening
Date: 08-Nov-02
Country: NORWAY
Operators want to get new acreage in the north, stretching high into the Arctic, because resources further south in the Norwegian part of the North Sea are on the wane.
Gunnar Berge, leader of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil conference in Oslo that he expected parliament will eventually give the green light.
"We have managed to unite these interests until now, so I cannot understand why this should not be the case also in the future," he said of the oil industry and its opponents.
State-controlled Statoil has called for a rapid decision to remove uncertainties, saying that investment will drop drastically unless new areas are opened. Oil minister Einar Steensnaes said on Tuesday that a decision would come in 2004.
Berge said the 2004 deadline was appropriate given the complexity of balancing oil activities with the interests of the environment and fisheries.
Statoil has been allowed to develop the giant Snoehvit gas field in the Barents Sea, but the decision sparked a political row prompting the oil ministry to ban on any further developments until a detailed impact study is in place.
Berge also said authorities had to look at the regulatory framework to keep up activity in the maturing North Sea area, including a re-assessment of a 78-percent offshore tax which many players say must be cut to avoid an exodus of investments.
"The tax regime has been revised several times in the past and it would be more than strange if one is not willing to assess it again," he said, adding that the decision was a political decision outside his directorate.
