Norway looks at oil exploration outside Jan Mayen

Oil exploration outside the remote Arctic island Jan Mayen is not likely to start in the next few years. Still, this week a delegation of Norwegian politicians, business groups and environmentalists visited the glacier-clad island north of Iceland to look at the potential for exploration, reports the Barents Observer.

Norway’s oil production declines quicker than expected and the oil industry will have to look more in the Arctic, if production is to stabilize.

As BarentsObserver reported, Norwegian government in May presented a management plan for the Norwegian Sea that opens up for drilling in new places in the Arctic, among them in the waters around Jan Mayen.

“We have explored an increasingly large part of the Norwegian shelf,” Oil Minister Terje Riis-Johansen said. “If we now wish to develop Norway as an oil and gas nation, it will have to be in other areas.”

This week Riis Johansen held a seminar on exploration in Arctic areas and led a delegation to Jan Mayen to take a closer look at the possibilities for exploration.

Read more on Barents Observer.