Obviously Norway didn’t get the climate change memo..Even as Canada aims to gut its oil and gas industry in pursuit of elusive net zero goals, the government of Norway on Wednesday approved 19 new offshore projects on its continental shelf worth 200 billion Kroner — roughly $25 billion Canadian dollars..“These are projects that contribute to continued high and stable production from the Norwegian continental shelf, and to employment and value creation for the whole of society,” said Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland, according to a Google translation of its web site which is only available in Norwegian..Even as Canada aims to ‘transition’ oil and gas jobs, Norway’s energy ministry aims to create more of them..“We are further developing the petroleum business so that jobs and large incomes are created for the community,” Aasland added..The government credited tax incentives introduced during the pandemic for sparking interest in the country’s offshore. The projects consist of a combination of new greenfield developments, further development of existing fields and enhanced oil recovery of existing ones..Norway — which is a free trade partner under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) — is ramping up oil and gas exploration at home even as its state oil company Equinor shelves its Canadian discoveries off Newfoundland..Last year it overtook Russia as Europe’s biggest natural gas supplier and in January offered up a record number of exploration blocks in its portion of the Barents Sea in a bid to increase the continent’s energy security..The country’s sovereign wealth fund derived from oil revenue is one of the world’s largest, standing at $1.4 trillion US..In response, environmental campaigners at Friends of the Earth Norway, WWF-Norway and Greenpeace Norway described the country’s lobbying for continued oil and gas expansion as “embarrassing,” “extremely reckless” and “a middle finger to the Paris Agreement.”
