Norwegian opposition parties will force Statoil and other companies to power four North Sea oil fields from land, risking further delays to the country’s biggest offshore development in decades.
An alliance of opposition parties holding a majority in parliament will ask the Conservative-led government to require Statoil and its partners in the Johan Sverdrup field to include three nearby fields in a regional solution for power from land when they submit a development plan early next year, lawmakers told reporters at parliament today.
“We’re going to ask the government that the license terms for Johan Sverdrup require an area solution that covers Gina Krog, Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen” as well as Sverdrup, Terje Aasland, a Labor Party member of the Energy and Environment Committee, said in Oslo.
“We’re certain that what we’re now seeking will not lead to a risk of delays.”
Statoil and its partners in Sverdrup, which could be Norway’s biggest oil find since 1974 with 2.9 billion barrels, have said the first phase of the development will use power from land without including the nearby fields.
The decision was met with criticism from opposition politicians who are seeking to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from offshore petroleum production, which usually uses gas turbines and accounted for more than 25 percent of Norway’s emissions in 2012.
Statoil has warned against forcing electrification of the entire Utsira High area of the North Sea, saying it could cause a year’s delay to the already postponed project and current- value losses of 20 billion kroner ($3.4 billion).
Aker, a stakeholder in oil-services companies Kvaerner and Aker Solutions, said a delay could cost the industry thousands of jobs and have “dramatic consequences.”
Norway’s minority government, consisting of the Conservative and Progress parties, has warned against the move, saying it would introduce “a new type of political risk” in Norway, according to Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien.
The opposition’s move follows a closed hearing this week by parliament’s Committee on Energy and the Environment, where lawmakers questioned Statoil, Lundin Petroleum , Det Norske Oljeselskap and Lien to gather information on disparities in costs estimates for electrification.