Oslo is postponing the next tender for oil and gas exploration licenses by three years. And the Norwegian market leader Equinor is even postponing the investment decision to develop a field in the Arctic by four years. Is this the beginning of the end for the Nordic country’s petroleum industry?
Platforms for the North Sea oil field Johan Sverdrup at dusk. It is one of the largest fields in Norway. Commissioned in 2019, it could continue to supply raw materials for around fifty years.
“Norway’s ‘climate bomb’ has been defused,” read the headline of a Norwegian publication in mid-November after the state-controlled energy company Equinor announced that the decision to develop the Wisting field in the Barents Sea, originally announced for the end of 2022 will be postponed to 2026. The production of oil and gas in the Arctic has been a hot topic in Norway for years.