Norwegian oil exploration at halt

“With the world struggling to find oil, one fracture of Norway‘s new left-wing coalition government is threatening to block or slow exploration of new areas that would replenish the falling reserves of the world‘s third-largest oil exporter”, The Wall Street Journal today reports.

As Whitmore Reans Gazette holds significant Norwegian interest and readership, we today spoke with Den Tenksomme Vraslosken, our expert on Norwegian politics, about the issue of Norwegian Oil exploration.

“As our finance minister Kristin Halvorsen points out, it is more important to encourage alternative sources of economic growth than to try to boost declining oil output by opening up new resource areas. We have a lot of opportunities in the environmental field, such as renewable energy and carbon-dioxide technology. We also have great opportunities for tourism.

Den Tenksomme Vraslosken tells us he voted for Mrs. Halvorsen‘s party, The Socialist Left Party (SV), during the election last year and that he is pleased with the governments policy on this issue. SV want to stop all development in the Barents Sea and the areas around the Lofoten Islands in the Norwegian Sea, arguing that petroleum extraction would irrevocably damage the fragile eco-systems, which environmentalists call some of the last pristine waters in Europe. “I grew up in the Lofoten Islands area myself, I just won‘t have any oil exploration up there”, Den Tenksomme Vraslosken says.

25% of the state‘s revenue comes directly from the petroleum sector and is by far the most important revenue for the state budget, says Per Kristian Foss, former finance minister and a member of the Right opposition party. Confronted with Mr. Foss‘ statements, Den Tenksomme Vraslosken says “Well, we got rid of him. Now let us have a go!”