SV will investigate its own government for the opening of the Southeastern Barents Sea – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

SV asks the Storting control committee to investigate the Ministry of Oil and Energy’s handling of the southeastern Barents Sea.

This comes after NRK could report Tuesday on a report showing the risk that oil exploration in the area would not be profitable. The Ministry of Oil and Energy was aware of the report, but decided not to share it with the Storting.

The Storting was informed that the Barents Sea in the southeast could provide between NOK 50 and 280 billion in treasury. The opening was unanimously adopted.

Freddy André Øvstegård (SV) in the control committee will now find out if the ministry has withheld information in other cases.

– We must find out if this report was deliberately withheld, who made that decision and who found out, he tells NRK.

I did not know about the case

– But were you the one who was in government at that time? Are you going to examine yourself?

– We have a clear responsibility to address the matter. Had SV received this information, we would have had completely different letters to stop what we were initially against. Now we take responsibility for the errors that occurred and the importance this has in the future, says Lars Haltbrekken at SV.

The then Minister of Climate and Environment Bård Vegar Solhjell (SV) also tells NRK that he was never informed of the report.

Cleaning is needed, Haltbrekken believes:

– At worst, we have an oil administration in this country that keeps critical information away from politicians.

The Liberal Party is also considering a control case

The Liberal Party says that the ministry must respond very well to itself if the party does not want to ask for a control case.

– We are ready to notify the control case, says Terje Breivik (V) in the control committee.

Breivik thinks it is paradoxical, but also good, that SV now wants to examine himself.

When the Storting considered the Barents Sea in the southeast in 2012, the Liberal Party had two parliamentary representatives. Trine Skei Grande was one of them.

– The Liberal Party had doubts about what we should vote for in this case. But with the information we received, we landed to vote. Had we been familiar with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate report, we would definitely have landed to vote against, he tells NRK today.

The Liberal Party voted against the Aasta Hansteen field, arguing that the party did not believe it was profitable.

On Tuesday, the committee will decide if there will be a case

The leader of the control committee, Dag Terje Andersen (Labor Party), says it is natural for questions to be asked on this matter.

– We are already in the internal communication process to take the case for consideration when we meet on Tuesday. It becomes natural to start by asking questions and then to evaluate based on the responses we receive if we create a case.

Several members of the NRK committee have spoken to say that they have not decided whether to open a control case or not.

– We have to have a discussion in the committee and do some research first, says Svein Harberg (H).

Opening a case requires the support of at least one third of the Control Committee members, but in recent years the Committee has sought unanimity.

MDG also wants a control case to be opened. But they have no representative on the control committee.

The party says they will present a proposal to the Storting to close the Barents Sea to the southeast of oil activities, and that new licenses be suspended. They will also ask for an account of what the opening of the area has cost society so far.

I did not get all the information

In June 2013, the Storting unanimously approved oil exploration in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea.

They had received a report from Ola Borten Moe’s oil ministry stating that values ​​there could range from 50 to 280 billion crowns.

But the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate had made another calculation, which the Storting never saw. He did not analyze the profitability of individual fields, but said the area as a whole could become a deficit project if the price of oil fell 30 percent.

The report only appeared now, in connection with the Supreme Court hearing on the climate lawsuit. That is, seven years after the Storting considered opening the maritime zone for oil exploration.

Internal emails show frustration with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate that the Petroleum Ministry interfered with their professional evaluations.

Management was informed that the assessment should clearly indicate that the area should be opened up and that the southeast of the Barents Sea should not be reduced.

Ultimately, the Ministry of Oil and Energy Ministry decided that the Storting did not need to see estimates showing how much uncertainty there was about the profitability of the area.

Then-Minister of Oil and Energy Ola Borten Moe says the Storting received all the relevant information. He says that he himself never saw what both the ministry and the leadership today call an internal memorandum.