Norway's climate decision

Convert old oil and gas fields to green electricity - or close them prematurely!

In the current German energy situation, it is worth taking a look at other European countries. In Germany, we should not simply believe that our European partners can supply us without borders. A look at Norway shows that even supposedly more progressive and independent partners have their difficulties.

Norway, Western Europe's largest oil producer, also wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 % by 2030 compared to 1990. However, a reduction of only 4.5 % was achieved by 2021, according to preliminary official statistics. Norway's Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide said in an interview with Reuters that it was "impossible to achieve the national climate target without supplying more offshore oil production platforms with renewable energy." The offshore oil industry is responsible for around a quarter of Norway's total emissions, mainly because it also uses gas for energy production on offshore installations.

If Norway is not able to utilise more carbon-free, emission-reducing energy on its offshore platforms, then some of the old oil and gas fields would have to be decommissioned early in order for the country to meet its climate targets.

Environmentalists would naturally welcome such a move. Furthermore, as Norway's water reservoirs have reached a 20-year low, electricity prices have soared and concerns about energy shortages have increased, quite a few Norwegians fear that more energy-generating offshore platforms could be connected to the Norwegian land grid, which is dominated by hydropower, to feed electricity into the grid. There is increasing resistance to this.

However, shutting down old oil production platforms is not in line with the centre-left government's promise to "develop the oil industry - not phase it out". Moreover, such a move would antagonise the powerful oil workers' unions. "I think the better answer is to build more electricity capacity," Eide said. "The idea is that most of the extra power for the platforms will come from offshore wind."

So Norway wants to build up an offshore wind capacity of 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2040, which could generate almost as much electricity as the huge hydroelectric power plants on land. However, the country is only now taking the preparatory steps towards offshore wind power. Of course, this situation is not helped by the fact that the awarding of licences for onshore wind power plants was halted in 2019 due to public protests - the awarding of licences was only resumed in April of this year.

Eide said he hoped that the high energy prices would help to promote new projects. He also links this hope to a parliamentary rule change that gives local governments a greater say in energy production and more revenue.

Source: Reuters , Euractiv 17.08 / hsc