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The oil adventure began in the North Sea. Now Ap will repeat success. The North Sea will become the CO₂ of Europe–storage. Hydrogen and offshore wind energy will be produced here. The metals will be recovered from the seabed.
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“The North Sea has been a testing ground for what Norway has managed to deliver over the past 50 years,” says AP leader Jonas Gahr Støre.
As Norway and Europe are seriously entering the era of renewal, the North Sea will become the springboard for a new industrial adventure that will be no less important after the crown crisis, he believes.
Last year, the Solberg government rejected an Ap proposal to create such a North Sea plan. Therefore, the party decided to do it themselves. It has been converted into a 28-page document that includes both traditional industries such as oil, fishing, aquaculture, and shipping, and offshore wind energy, hydrogen production from natural gas, and extraction of minerals from the seabed.
It is Støre who, together with Vice President Hadia Tajik and energy and environmental policy spokesperson Espen Barth Eide, is launching the plan.
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Develop the money machine
The big money machine in the North Sea is the oil business. The oil adventure began with the discovery of Ekofisk in 1969. Støre reiterates that Ap will not liquidate but will develop its oil business.
But it warns of tough environmental demands. The oil industry, as it plans to do so, will cut emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
– But does everything indicate that the demand for Norwegian gas in Europe will fall?
– Natural gas imports from the EU will decrease, but if they are converted to hydrogen by removing CO la, it will have a longer life. Success with CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) can give our oil and gas industry decades, explains Espen Barth Eide.
Hydrogen production from gas can become a new industry. Ap will have a new state hydrogen company that can lead to this, as Statoil did at the beginning of the oil age.
North Sea business
Large scale CO con cleanup emergency
Støre reminds us that capturing and storing CO₂ is crucial to achieving climate goals, but it also presents huge opportunities for new business that can give the Norwegian supplier industry important tasks.
Empty oil and gas deposits in the North Sea will become the storage space for CO₂ throughout Europe. Here, the partly state Equinor faces the Sleipner field, where since 1996 CO 1996 has been stored in the Utsira Formation 1000 meters below the sea floor.
CO2-Gas from, among other things, industry and waste facilities will be collected and piped to the oil fields, where it can be pumped to reservoirs.
To achieve this, and for Norway to lead, an investment decision is required at the large-scale CCS facilities at the waste facilities at Klemetsrud and the Norcem cement plant in Brevik, all in next year’s state budget , emphasizes the Labor leader.
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Stimulate the market
Products produced in CO₂-purifying plants, such as cement, become more expensive.
The party believes that a market for CCS products can be created in Norway and worldwide.
– We can, for example, impose climate-friendly materials requirements for the state and municipalities. Would create an internal market for cement manufactured in a factory with CO₂–cleaning, emphasizes the deputy of Hadia Tayik.
Wind Wind – New Export Industry
Wind power has encountered considerable resistance on land.
Offshore wind energy can become a new growth industry for much of the industry that today lives in offshore oil operations. Ap will have a plan that can provide 3GW from the Norwegian continental shelf by 2030.
Offshore wind power will help electrify the rig, and long-term offshore power generation can become an export industry.
Barth Eide anticipates that the energy will be sent to European markets through a power grid that Statnett develops and operates according to the same model that state-owned Gassco uses in the operation of on-shelf pipelines.
Mining on the seabed
The green change requires a quantity of metals that are missing today. One of the proposals that can provoke considerable debate is to extract metals from the seabed. This is a technology that has not yet been developed, but extensive research has been done, and it is known that there is, among other things, a lot of copper and zinc on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The Norwegian offshore industry has technology that enables it to play a leading role in this seabed mining operation, says the AP leader. He emphasizes that the management of mineral resources must be ecosystem-based and in line with the precautionary principle.
Ap also wants to investigate whether a state-owned company will be established to operate mines on the seabed.
An active state
A common thread throughout the North Sea Plan is that the state must play an active role in this industrial development, also as owner, by being the creator of a market and by actively using the tax system.
– Norway has a large oil and gas industry because the state established Statoil. The state may need to take the owner’s side to start the activity. We don’t care, says Støre. He emphasizes that state ownership must be used strategically and dynamically through the creation of new state companies. View various projects in which the state and the private cooperate. He also believes that the state can own companies in the development phase and then sell them when they are profitable.
– But is this going to be expensive?
– That’s a ten year plan. So we have not broken this down into the budget headings, but it is about the willingness to coordinate and strive to achieve the goals of Energy-Norway, Offshore-Norway and the maritime industries, the AP leader concludes.