Norway Urges EU to Reconsider Arctic Drilling Ban Citing Energy Security and Policy Consistency

Com reported. Norway, which is not a member of the EU but is the biggest gas supplier to European markets, has sent nearly a dozen of its ministers to Brussels so far this year to discuss energy, trade, and the state of Arctic drilling. The Iran war and the biggest oil and gas supply disruption in history have added to Norway's arguments that Europe needs reliable supply from places outside of conflict zones.

The EU enacted a moratorium on Arctic oil and gas drilling in 2021 due to climate commitments and environmental concerns. The moratorium does not allow drilling in Norway's northern parts of the Barents Sea, which is estimated to contain most of the remaining Norwegian oil and gas resources.

Claude Veron-Reville, the EU's special envoy for the Arctic, told Bloomberg this week that Norway is very active and good at making its voice heard.

"Norway knows very well how to intervene, they are very well organized and very present," Veron-Reville added. Norway argues that an arbitrary line defining the Arctic area shouldn't be viewed as the cut-off line for oil and gas drilling. "There are no climate arguments for treating oil and gas produced north and south of a certain line differently," Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Bloomberg.

Dozens of Scandinavian financial institutions this week urged the European Commission to remain firm in its opposition to Arctic oil drilling even as the bloc could face physical oil shortages in weeks. 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of natural gas, or about 22 trillion cubic feet, if it rethinks its Arctic policy.