Norway Presses EU To Lift Arctic Oil And Gas Drilling Moratorium

Norway is putting pressure on the European Union to remove a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, where almost two-thirds of its petroleum resources are located, Bloomberg has reported.

According to Bloomberg, Norwegian politicians, civil servants, and environmental and industry lobbyists are increasingly visiting Brussels to influence EU institutions as the bloc prepares to unveil a new Arctic policy by the end of September.

Norway, which is not a member of the EU, is Western Europe’s largest exporter of oil and gas, with production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf meeting roughly 30% of EU and UK gas demand.

“Norway is very active and good at making its voice heard,” the EU’s Special Envoy for the Arctic, Claude Veron-Reville, said in an interview in Brussels on Wednesday, as reported by Bloomberg. “Norway knows very well how to intervene; they are very well organized and very present,” she added.

So far this year, 11 Norwegian ministers have visited Brussels on matters ranging from the Arctic and trade to energy and space.

The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has given Norway fresh arguments to persuade Brussels to drop the moratorium on new Arctic drilling, as the EU becomes increasingly dependent on Norwegian gas exports.

At the heart of the debate are climate and environmental concerns.

Critics argue that the Arctic region, which is warming three to four times faster than the global average, is particularly vulnerable to exploration activities and that additional drilling could undermine efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.

Critics also contend that a short-term energy crisis is not a sufficient reason to open the Arctic to new drilling.

The EU’s ban on new drilling, introduced in 2021, is consistent with the bloc’s climate obligations, Veron-Reville said, adding that any decision to remove it ultimately rests with EU member states.

The EU defines the Arctic as the region north of the Arctic Circle.

Norway disputes the implications of that definition for drilling activities.

“There are no climate arguments for treating oil and gas produced north and south of a certain line differently,” Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, told Bloomberg.

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Eide said Norway’s policy is also to refrain from drilling “up in the icy wasteland” because of environmental concerns, but noted that the country has a substantial population and active petroleum operations in the Arctic.

Norway’s Arctic drilling activities are concentrated in the Barents Sea, which lies north of the country’s northernmost coastline.

Norway has also argued that warmer Gulf Stream waters make conditions there comparable to those further south on the continental shelf—a consequence of climate change driven largely by emissions from the fossil fuel industry.

Although Norway’s oil and gas production is expected to decline in the years ahead, the country recently opened 70 new blocks for exploration in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea. According to an estimate by WWF, it takes about 18 years from the discovery of an oil and gas field to the start of production in the Barents Sea.

Investors are taking notice.

A number of asset managers joined academics and climate groups in an open letter to the European Commission on Wednesday, defending the moratorium and urging the EU to “maintain and reinforce” protections against new fossil fuel infrastructure north of the Arctic Circle.

The coalition warned that expanded Arctic drilling risks “irreversible environmental damage,” could expose Europe to heightened security threats, and may lock in fossil fuel dependence beyond the EU’s 2050 net-zero target.

Financial-sector signatories include Nordea Asset Management, Norway’s largest pension company KLP, Danish pension providers Sampension, AkademikerPension, and Velliv, as well as lenders Triodos Bank and Cultura Bank.