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NO TO OIL IN THE COUNTRIES: The Minister of Oil and Energy, Tine Bru, says that the Veidnes oil terminal will not be profitable. He advises the Storting not to go ahead with the plan. Photo: Frode Hansen
There will be no oil base at Veidnes in Nordkapp municipality, if the Storting follows the advice of the Minister of Oil and Energy, Tina Bru (H). In the state budget, she advises the Storting not to go ahead with the project.
– We can’t count it at home. It has no political, economic or legal solution, says Tina Bru to VG.
But the Labor Party will not stop fighting for the precision project in which it has invested significant political capital:
“I have rarely been so upset and cursed as I am now,” Labor MP Bjørnar Skjæran tells VG.
Before the summer, the Storting requested that the government find a solution to ensure the flow of oil to land in Finnmark from the great oil discovery in the Johan Castberg field off the Finnmark coast.
The Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party lobbied for Veidnes to have an oil base in the new oil tax regime now in place during the crown crisis, to keep oil activity going.
Before the summer, the government parties agreed that Veidnes should be part of the agreement on the oil crisis package: the Storting ordered the government to ‘present a bill on a solution to secure the landing terminal at Veidnes, which is linked to temporary changes in the Oil Tax Law or other similar instruments ”.
The base is estimated to cost NOK 2-3 billion and provide 30-50 ground jobs.
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Not profitable
But according to the Minister of Oil and Energy, it is totally profitable. The negative social cost is estimated at NOK 3.6 billion.
– It’s just not profitable. The owners said no to the landing in 2019. One possible solution would be for the state to take direct responsibility, but it would be considered pure state aid and ESA would hardly say yes, says Tina Bru.
– All agreed that the oil crisis package should not stimulate unprofitable projects. If I had gone further with this oil base, I would have, he adds.
SV towards the Labor Party and the Socialist Petroleum Party boast in Finnmark: – They have led the local population behind the light
Labor: the government is obliged
In June, Labor Deputy Leader Hadia Tajik was very clear that Veidnes in Nordkapp municipality would get an oil terminal with investments of around three billion crowns:
“Now we have tied the government and the FRP to the mast that oil from the Barents Sea is going to land,” Tajik told E24.
– It is regrettable that expectations have been created that cannot be met. More people must take responsibility for this. In this last round, it is the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party who must assume that responsibility, says Bru.
But the Labor Party does not intend to give up landing oil in Finnmark:
– It’s about political will, says Bjørnar Skjæran.
– The government has not crossed two suits to create a domino effect in the north from the resources that are extracted in the north. The ruling parties participated in the decision, but the next day they questioned their willingness to implement it. We will not give up until Finnmark shares in the wealth that the Barents Sea collects, adds the Labor deputy leader.
Frederic Hauge in Bellona rejoices at the decision. On Tuesday, he sent a letter to Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) and asked her to halt plans for an oil terminal in Veidnes:
– It gives me some hope that the policy will work, Hauge tells VG on Wednesday morning.
Bellona argued that this must be “the most senseless oil policy decision of all time.”
