Fronts harden in fight for Lofoten oil
Environmentalists intend to make oil production in the Lofoten waters a key component in the upcoming Norwegian parliament elections. The oil industry meanwhile steps up its campaign for an opening of the waters by many considered the most prospective in the Norwegian High North.
Leader of the Norwegian Oil Industry Association, Per Terje Vold, believes the Lofoten waters are the most promising on the Norwegian shelf and admits that the region might be a key subject for debate in the September Norwegian parliament elections.
He maintains that Norway should start up exploration in the region no later than in 2010, NRK reports. Over the last years, Norway’s oil production has dropped sharply and the oil industry is getting desperate for new available resources.
A new government management plan for the Lofoten waters and Barents Sea is to be presented in 2010. This year will see heated debates over the region between the conflicting interest groups. The current Lofoten and Barents Sea management report, published in 2006, bans exploration in the Lofoten waters, but does open up for seismic studies in the area.
Norwegian environmentalists are now joining forces against the opening of the Lofoten area to the oil industry. Last week, several organisations together established the “Movement for a Lofoten free of oil”.
Also government coalition partner the Socialist Left Party is strongly against the oil industry’s intervention in the Lofoten waters and will hardly allow its government partner, the more oil-friendly Labour Party, to give concessions to the industry. Deputy leader of the party, Audun Lysbakken confirms to NRK that the Lofoten issue will be a top subject in the party’s upcoming election campaign.
Read the Integrated Management of the Marine Environment of the Barents Sea and the Sea Areas off the Lofoten Islands from 2006. The plan is also available in Russian
