The Government believes there is reason to believe in a continued strong interest from oil companies to participate in the 24th licensing round.
The Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien was clearly unhappy after the government Monday invited oil companies to record which sites they find interesting for business.
– I expect interest to be active on the Norwegian shelf as it was in the 23rd round, we still had a significant interest in these areas. We will also see this now, says Lien to news agency NTB.
– It is clear that during the next summer we’ll know a lot more about the geology of the newly opened areas in the Barents Sea South. If we do get the findings which we hope and believe we are going to get there, so I think this will be very profitable, he said.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg believes the most important thing is that the companies can work in areas they already are, so they can exploit synergies.
– The biggest challenge politically is that the environmental movement believes we should halt oil activities. It does not mean we will.
There is going to be less activity in Norwegian oil and gas in the coming years, but we believe it is important to control the slowdown of activity in a way that it does not give unpredictable and dire consequences for Norwegian society, she says.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
