Norwayโs North Sea Gas Reboot Deepens Europeโs Fossil Fuel Dilemma
Norway has approved the reopening of three longโclosed North Sea gasfields โ Albuskjell, Vest Ekofisk and Tommeliten Gamma โ and greenโlit exploration in 70 new offshore areas, despite strong warnings from its own environment agency and opposition parties.
Prime minister Jonas Gahr Stรธre argues the move will protect jobs, bolster Norwayโs welfare state and reinforce Europeโs energy security as war in the Middle East disrupts global supplies and drives prices higher. The government plans to invest about 19bn kroner (ยฃ1.5bn) to restart the gasfields by 2028, with production expected to run until 2048. Gas will be piped to Germany and light oil shipped to the UK.
Critics, including the Socialist Left party, have condemned the decision as โmadnessโ and โgreenwashingโ, warning that expanding exploration โ some of it closer to shore than ever before โ risks severe damage to marine ecosystems and undermines climate commitments. They also stress that new fields will do little to ease todayโs price shock but could lock Europe into decades more fossil fuel dependence.
Meanwhile, state energy company Equinor is already producing record volumes of oil and gas, benefiting from surging prices and delivering its strongest quarterly profits since the postโUkraine energy crisis. With geopolitical tensions likely to persist, the tension between shortโterm energy security and longโterm climate goals in Europe is only becoming sharper.
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