Norway puts restrictions on petroleum activity in the north

31-03-06

The Norwegian government presented its Integrated Management Plan for the Barents Sea and the coastal areas in Northern Norway. The plan opens for petroleum activity in the southern part of the Barents Sea, but not in a 50 km belt along the Finnmark coast and certain areas off the coast of Vesteraalen and Lofoten. Neither will there be any activity in a 65 km zone around Bjoernoya.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the presentation that the Government has made the Northern Regions a major part of its policy, and that the fisheries and the oil and gas industry would be developed side by side. He said the Integrated Management Plan for the North ought to become a model for many other nations.

Environmental Minister Helen Bjoernoey said the Barents Sea was a unique area, with major renewable resources. She said the Government will establish a new and more coordinated system for monitoring the marine ecosystems in the north. This initiative is a part of the Integrated Management Plan for the Barents Sea and the sea areas off Lofoten, which calls for more knowledge about these marine areas.
“The gathering of more knowledge will be a fundamental part of our efforts to establish a management of the Barents Sea that safeguards the marine ecosystems,” Bjoernoey said.

The restrictions have been met with disappointment by many in Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, both among politicians and the industry, as well as fishermen. They fear that the region will not receive the full benefit of the development of the resources in the North, compared with what has happened in the coastal regions further south.
Environmental organisations, on the other hand, see the restrictions as a victory for their long campaign against the exploitation of the oil reserves off the vulnerable coastal areas in the North, where they claim even the smallest oil spill would result in an environmental disaster, particularly in the winter time.
 

 

Source: NRK/Norway Post