Pushing north

Although prospects are better than in the neighbouring UK, operators in the Norwegian North Sea are dealing with maturing acreage in some areas. Amid a fall in drilling activity in recent months, companies are pushing for access to new frontier areas. David Townsend reports

THIS YEAR WILL see drilling activity on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) at its lowest level since 1968. Unless the government makes new acreage available, the region will find it increasingly difficult to compete with other oil and gas producing regions. Norway has always tried to walk a fine line between protecting national interests and promoting the oil and gas industry, says Finn Roar Aamodt, director general of the Norwegian oil industry association (OLF*). As competition has emerged from other areas over the last decade - such as west Africa, Brazil, the Middle East and Russia - politicians have been persuaded to remove some, but not all, of the barriers to investment and now we