After almost 10 years, a dispute over the industrialization of the Arctic Archipelago has ended in the Norwegian parliament. The Norwegian Labor Party decided to withdraw its support for the exploitation of oil and gas in the Lofoten area.
The Labor Party declaration was a big surprise for the Norwegian petrochemical industry and related trade unions. According to the representative of Equinor ASA – the largest fuel producer in Norway – the extraction of deposits in Lofoten was necessary to maintain the current level of extraction and export of Norwegian oil fields. Thanks to them, Norway is one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
According to the Canadian editors of the Bloomberg portal, the decision of the Labor Party should not come as a surprise. Norwegians with increasing skepticism approach oil and its impact on the environment. The Labor Party’s decision was only a reflection of the prevailing mood among the Norwegian electorate. The Labor Party assures that despite the disagreement on the exploitation of the fields in Lofoten, the social democrats will continue to support the Norwegian petrochemical industry.
These promises, however, do not calm down the oil workers. They are afraid of abandoning tax breaks due to miners, and the idea of social democrats to set a specific date to stop carbon dioxide emissions during mining works is called “very demanding”. World environmental organizations have been appealing to miners for years to stop exploiting energy deposits in the arctic regions. Ecological problems related to the maritime form of oil production are primarily the risk of oil spilling into the ocean.
Icebreakers needed to build and maintain petrochemical infrastructure, constantly disturb the environment of polar bears, foxes and walrus, contributing to the death of many of them, WWF reports.
