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With
Arctic ice shrinking significantly, a trend scientists link to
climate change, the way the government defines the ice edge, and
with that where there can be oil and gas exploration, has been
put in question.
"The proposal was not backed and it will now be sent back for a
more thorough environmental assessment which will be done before
2020," the leader of parliament's energy and environment
committee Ola Elvestuen of the Liberal Party told Reuters.
The government launched a new licensing round in January when it
invited firms to drill for oil and gas further inside the Arctic
circle..
It is still unclear what this means for the new licensing round
in the previously unexplored eastern part of the Barents Sea,
which had been free of ice since 2004.
Oil and energy minister Tord Lien said he did not think the
development would have any impact on the round where the Arctic
blocks are included.
But Elvestuen said three blocks in the new round would be
affected according to a deal from 2012 which stipulated that oil
and gas exploration could not take place near ice.
The two small opposition parties - the Liberals and Christian
Democrats - which support the right-wing minority government
have earlier said they did not support the northward extension
of the ice edge in its current form.
They fear the risk of oil spills, which are harder to clear up
when mixed with ice.
The sector lies 60-70 km (40-45 miles) to the north of areas
currently accessible to the oil industry. It is being opened up
on the basis of a new 1984-2013 benchmark for the spread of sea
ice, which supersedes measurements collated from 1967 to 1989.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by David Evans)
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