Government wants to withdraw gas and oil tender in North Sea 

The government wants to stop a tender for a small number of gas and oil mining contracts in the Elly-Luke field in the North Sea, climate minister Lars Aagaard confirmed on social media yesterday.

That comes after oil company Bluenord retracted an unsolicited offer to search for and extract fossil fuels from the area.

“The government proposes that we stop the mini-tender regarding Elly and Luke, since Bluenord has withdrawn its application. As stated in the North Sea [political] Agreement, this must be agreed on with parties in the political agreement. I will do that tomorrow,” Aagaard wrote.

The tender round for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea has been criticised by opposition parties and environmental organisations, who have argued that Denmark will damage its reputation as a leader in green policies with the tender.

Vocabulary: udbudsrunde – tender

Faroe Islands MP objects to low-flying military aircraft

Neither Danish nor Faroese authorities were informed that a US Military aircraft would fly low over the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory in the North Sea that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Member of parliament Sjúrður Skaale from the Faroese party Javnaðarflokkurin criticised the August 5th flyby in comments to broadcaster DR, which has video footage of the aircraft’s low path over the Faroese cliffs.

“It was flying very low. Nobody knows who it belongs to. You assume that someone knows it’s a friendly aircraft that is on an exercise. But then it emerge that no-one had been informed of anything,” Skaale told DR.

“That makes people nervous,” he added and said he had raised the issue with Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.

Vocabulary: en overflyvning – a flyby

Escaped monkey from rescue zoo found after three months

A monkey which escaped in June from the Odsherred Rescue Zoo has finally been found and is back in captivity, local media TV2 Øst reports.

The animal, a capuchin monkey, has been spotted several times in northern Zealand in the last two months and on Sunday appeared at a home in the town of Klint near Nykøbing. The couple who live at the address were able to capture the monkey using a banana (what else?), and managed to get it to enter their greenhouse.

The zoo’s owner, Joan Thygesen, said she was relieved at the recovery of the little monkey, which is not easy to catch due to its agility and ability to quickly scale tall trees.

“We’ve been out looking for him every day. We have two or three teams who have been out looking for him all the time. They’ve been everywhere from Årstoften to Grevinge to Nykøbing and Rørvig,” she said to TV2 Øst, reeling off a list of local towns.

Vocabulary: adræthed – agility

Rail fares to go up in 2024

The price of rail tickets will increase by up to 13 percent in Denmark next year, with most locations in the country likely to see higher fares.

National rail operator DSB announced its 2024 fares yesterday after agreement with regional traffic companies and operators Arriva and DOT.

The fares for 2024 were published by DSB on its website, and will come into effect on January 21st.

Prices are being put up next in response to increasing costs, the rail operator said.

The “price regulation” which will take effect next year comes after a “backlog of costs from 2022 and 2023”, it said.

Vocabulary: prisstigninger – price increases