Norway has intensified its charm offensive to persuade the European Union to drop its ban on Arctic drilling by campaigning that oil and gas resources in the High North would be better for the energy security of its closest ally than LNG supplies from the Middle East or the United States.
Norway, which is not a member of the EU but is the biggest gas supplier to European markets, has been lobbying the bloc this year to drop its opposition to drilling in the Arctic. The Iran war and the biggest oil and gas supply disruption in history have added to Norway’s arguments that Europe needs reliable supply from places outside of conflict zones.
With energy security currently top of every government’s agenda, “European countries must make their decisions,” Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told the Financial Times in remarks published on Friday.
“Is it safer to buy it from the Gulf? From Qatar? Is it safer to buy it from the US?” the official added.
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The EU’s current moratorium on drilling in the Arctic is not an informed decision, says the Norwegian PM as Norway looks to pitch its natural gas resources in the Arctic as an energy security asset instead of a climate concern.
“To say that there should be a moratorium on that, I do not think that is informed,” Støre told FT.
“I do not think that is updated knowledge.”
The EU’s moratorium on Arctic drilling was enacted in 2021 due to the bloc’s climate commitments and environmental concerns. The ban does not allow drilling in Norway’s northern parts of the Barents Sea, which is estimated to contain most of the remaining Norwegian oil and gas resources.
Norway has argued for years that an arbitrary line defining the Arctic area shouldn’t be viewed as the cut-off line for oil and gas drilling.
Norway’s lobbying efforts clash with last month’s call of dozens of Scandinavian financial institutions which urged the European Commission to remain firm in its opposition to Arctic oil drilling even as the bloc could face physical oil shortages in weeks.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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