Nothing helped. Neither the exhortations of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which believes that the time has come to abandon all new oil and gas projects nor the repeated pleas of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to “leave oil, coal and gas in the ground, where they belong.” Having become Europe’s leading gas supplier in 2022, Norway has no intention of stepping on the brakes.
The recent announcements by the Norwegian Labor-Centrist government attest to this. After awarding 47 new exploration permits for mature areas in January, and proposing 92 additional blocks for exploration by 2024, it has just authorized, on June 28, 19 extraction projects on the Norwegian continental shelf, for a total value in excess of 200 billion kroner (€17 billion).
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In Oslo, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy is justifying the decision with the need to ensure “Europe’s energy security.” To compensate for the drop in Russian gas deliveries to Europe, Norway already increased its production by 8% in 2022: “This corresponds to 100 terawatt-hours of additional energy supplied to the European market,” said Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, the petroleum and energy minister of state.
2022, a year of record profits
Two initiatives, in particular, have boosted deliveries: “Firstly, we have reduced the amount of gas we inject into oil wells to increase extraction. Secondly, we have delayed some maintenance work that was not critical,” explained the minister of state, who added that the measures “will ensure a high level of production in 2023 and for the next four or five years,” before the exploitation of new fields takes over.
This increase in production, combined with rising energy prices, enabled Norway to post record profits in 2022, reaching 1,457 billion kroner (€125 billion), according to the Norwegian central statistical office (SSB), three times more than in 2021. These profits have further increased the value of its sovereign wealth fund, which now exceeds 15.3 trillion kroner (€1.3 trillion).
These enormous gains have earned the Nordic country the label of “war profiteer.” Earlier this year, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store dismissed the accusations, saying that Norway was “a lucky country,” but that it had also been producing energy resources for 50 years “at its own risk.” For his part, Eriksen emphasized that the kingdom had been able to meet rising demands in 2022 because its resource management was “based on long-term business decisions.” Moreover, he added, Norway has put in place “one of the largest support programs for Ukraine,” with 10.7 billion kroner (€918 000 million) already paid out in 2022 and 75 billion more planned over the next five years.
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Source link : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/07/09/norway-boosts-its-oil-and-gas-production_6047022_19.html
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Publish date : 2023-07-09 07:00:00
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