Norway may step up oil exploration

Norway’s Oil and Energy Minister Thorhild Widvey said the nation may consider opening more of its Arctic waters for increased drilling and exploration, countering a slump in its North Sea oil reserves.

“We will in the near future look at the possibility of increasing activity in the northern areas,” he said at a press conference in Stavanger.

In December, Norway reopened parts of the Barents Sea to exploration, while prohibiting drilling at the Nordland 6 area in the Norwegian Sea further south. The state halted drilling in the Barents Sea in 2001 to study the environmental effects.