Norway leans greener

Public enthusiasm for the oil and gas industry is on the wane, with potentially significant effects

This author's impression, after almost 20 years covering the oil and gas industry, including two-and-a-half years spent living and working in Oslo, was that the Norwegian public and their politicians had a generally positive and supportive view of their hydrocarbons sector. But the policy positions being staked out by an increasing number of the country's political parties, and by current polling numbers, point to a perceptible shift in attitudes, particularly among younger voters and activists. And this shift comes when the Norwegian oil and gas sector may need more support, rather than less. Two issues loom large—the first, opening for drilling the waters around northern Norway's iconic Lo