OPINION: It is somewhat ironic that Norway, with its bulging $1.1 trillion petroleum fund, has to be cajoled into incentivising vital investments to support the green energy transition as a condition of tax relief measures intended to prop up the country’s beleaguered oil and gas sector.

The Covid-19 crisis and accompanying oil price crash have thrown into stark relief the Oslo government’s tardiness in coming up with adequate measures to promote renewable energy investments in areas such as floating wind and carbon capture, utilisation and storage as desperate contractors champ at the bit for such work amid a sudden drop in their core oil and gas-related business.

While paying lip service to the Paris Agreement on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, successive administrations have been largely sitting on their hands, content in the knowledge the country’s climate goals will be achieved by the industry through instruments such as carbon taxes.

Undoubtedly, this lack of urgency may derive from the fact the country’s energy needs are mainly covered by cheap clean hydropower, so floating wind and other green infrastructure are essentially needed to curb emissions from the oil and gas sector rather than to supply the domestic power grid.

The government is now paying the price for this complacency as financial aid measures for the industry are rolled out with caveats for green investment.

The current crisis may have proven a final wake-up call, but the alarm has been ringing for a very long time.

(This is an Upstream opinion article.)

Energy Transition

OPINION: Norway dragging its feet on burning issue of industry help