(Adds Greenpeace statement)
By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Norway will offer oil companies
blocks in nine frontier areas in its latest licensing round, it
said on Thursday, opening the way for a major expansion of
exploration in the Arctic and drawing fierce criticism from
environmental campaigners.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Petroleum
Directorate (NPD) offered 136 blocks, in line with a preliminary
indication made in June. They include eight regions of the
Arctic Barents Sea and one in the Norwegian Sea.
"New discoveries are necessary to ensure continued activity,
ripple effects, employment and governmental revenues throughout
the country," Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said in
a statement.
The application deadline is Feb. 23 next year.
Environmental groups have said Norway's hunt for Arctic oil
and gas contradicted the country's international commitments to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions (CO2).
Greenpeace, which awaits the Supreme Court's ruling on the
legality of an earlier Arctic licensing round, said the
announcement of new blocks was "baffling".
"In a time of climate crisis, they choose to facilitate even
more oil exploration in the vulnerable Arctic," Frode Pleym,
head of Greenpeace Norway, said in a statement. "This is
reckless and a mockery of future generations."
Two lower courts have ruled in the government's favour and
the state has said decisions on future oil exploration are the
responsibility of parliament, not the courts.
"Petroleum activities in Norway are subject to stringent
health, safety and environment requirements, as well as
requirements to safeguard the external environment," Bru said.
Norway is western Europe's top oil and gas producer with
daily output of some 4 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The government estimates the Barents Sea holds about
two-thirds of the remaining undiscovered oil and gas resources
off Norway, although companies have yet to make major finds.
There are only two producing fields and one field under
development in the Barents Sea.
Norway's state-controlled Equinor, Sweden's Lundin
Energy and Norway's Vaar Energi, a subsidiary of
Italy's Eni, say they are keen on exploration in the
frigid northern waters.
But majors such as Shell and ConocoPhillips
did not participate in the previous frontier areas licensing
round.
(Editing by Terje Solsvik, Elaine Hardcastle and Barbara Lewis)