Norway Urges EU to Allow More Oil from the Arctic

Norwegian politicians, officials and lobbyists are pushing to have the EU’s ban on new oil and gas exploration in the Arctic lifted, reports Bloomberg.

This pressure comes ahead of the EU’s adoption of new guidelines for the Arctic at the end of September.

Norway – with almost two-thirds of its oil reserves in the Arctic – is Western Europe’s largest exporter of oil and gas and accounts for around 30 per cent of the fossil fuels used in the EU and the UK.

The EU introduced a ban on new oil and gas projects in the Arctic – defined as the area above the Arctic Circle – in 2021.

Drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic is controversial and, according to critics, risks causing irreversible environmental damage.

Norway recently opened up 70 new so-called blocks for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.