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OIL

Norway’s oil investments to decline over next two years

Investment in Norway's all-important oil sector is set to decline until 2019 as producers face high costs and collapsing oil prices, a government agency said on Thursday.

Norway's oil investments to decline over next two years
Photo: Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk / NTB Scanpix
After investing a record level of about 180 billion kroner (18.7 billion euros, $20.4 billion) in 2013 and 2014, investments — barring activities in exploration — fell around 16 percent last year.
 
“They are expected to continue their decline going forward, followed by a moderate increase from 2019,” said the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, a government agency that helps manage and regulate oil sector activities.
 
With global oil prices plunging due to a supply glut, oil companies worldwide are slashing their investments and delaying or cancelling the development of certain projects that are no longer profitable.
 
 
Norway's oil production is also expected to fall from a record high of 1.57 million barrels per day (bpd) last year to 1.38 million bpd in 2019. A slight rebound of 1.40 million bdp is anticipated in 2020.
 
“Activity will remain high in the years to come, despite the decline since 2014. Therefore, it is important that companies make wise decisions and keep a long-term perspective,” said petroleum agency head Bente Nyland.
 
Norway's economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector which accounts for more than 20 percent of its gross domestic product.
 
The slowdown in the oil sector has already led to the loss of 30,000 jobs since January 2014 and the Nordic country's current 4.6 percent unemployment rate is the highest in a decade.

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OIL

NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration

Two NGOs and six young climate activists have decided to take Norway to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand the cancellation of oil permits in the Arctic, Greenpeace announced on Tuesday.

NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration
Northern Norway. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.

It’s the latest turn in a legal tussle between environmental organisations Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth Norway on one side and the Norwegian state on the other.

The organisations are demanding the government cancel 10 oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea awarded in 2016, arguing it was unconstitutional.

Referring to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the organisations claim that the oil licenses violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, guaranteeing everyone the right to a healthy environment.”

The six activists, alongside Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, hope that the European Court of Human Rights will hear their case and find that Norway’s oil expansion is in breach of human rights,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

In December, Norway’s Supreme Court rejected the claim brought by the organisations, their third successive legal defeat.

READ MORE: Norway sees oil in its future despite IEA’s warnings 

While most of the judges on the court agreed that article 112 could be invoked if the state failed to meet its climate and environmental obligations– they did not think it was applicable in this case.

The court also held that the granting of oil permits was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in part because they did not represent “a real and immediate risk” to life and physical integrity.

“The young activists and the environmental organisations argue that this judgment was flawed, as it discounted the significance of their environmental constitutional rights and did not take into account an accurate assessment of the consequences of climate change for the coming generations,” Greenpeace said.

On Friday, the Norwegian government unveiled a white paper on the country’s energy future, which still includes oil exploration despite a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The IEA recently warned that all future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Norwegian case is an example of a global trend in which climate activists are increasingly turning to courts to pursue their agenda.

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