Norway gives nod to offshore oil and gas investments

The government of Norway has given the green light to companies to develop 19 oil and gas offshore fields with investments valued over NOK200bn ($18.5bn).

The Norwegian government said in a press release that the projects were either new developments, further development of existing fields, or investments in projects for increased extraction at existing fields.

In the first half of 2020, oil demand in the world fell sharply as a result of the pandemic and there was great uncertainty regarding future developments. In June 2020, Storting adopted temporary changes to the Petroleum Tax Act to make it easier for oil companies to carry out planned investments.

Projects that were adopted in the period 2020-2022 and fell under the temporary tax changes resulted in total investments of around NOK440bn. Around NOK290bn is expected to go to Norwegian companies.

According to a statement by the Norwegian government, the investments should provide a basis for around 158,000 full-time jobs in the period from 2020 to 2029.

As for these 19 approved projects, the information provided by the operators puts the total investment tally at over NOK200bn.

Among the operators, there are some familiar names of oil majors like Equinor, Wintershall Dea, and OMV but Aker BP had the largest number of approved projects, nine. Aker BP also brags the most expensive project of the 19 approved as Yggdrasil alone is supposed to cost around NOK115bn.