Norwegian Continental Shelf no. 1 - 2020

Norway is a different country. Nature has been generous with us. Our ability to exploit natural resources has put us in a unique position with a very high standard of living, a technology industry which ranks as a global leader, and a sovereign wealth fund of more than NOK 10 000 billion. That benefits the whole of Norwegian society.

Big assets remain to be recovered from the NCS, says Bente Nyland on stepping down after 12 years as director general of the NPD. That is fortunate for Norwegian prosperity, since no genuine alternative exists at present.

Mineral oil is an energy-intensive and versatile liquid which humans have been exploiting on a large scale since the 1850s. After 170 years, many are calling for its production to cease completely. The question is what would happen then.

The photograph shows brecciated granitic rocks (Precambrian basement). Breccia consists of large angular fragments cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. In this case, the matrix comprises finely crushed stone which could be mixed with shale.

A big area of previously unknown sulphide mineral deposits in the Norwegian Sea has been identified by the NPD in the first survey of its own to map such resources. This took place last summer on the Mohn Ridge.

Responsibility for administering mineral resources on the NCS was assigned to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2017, with a new Act on seabed minerals adopted this spring.

The NPD’s chemical analyses of sulphides and manganese crusts from the NCS show high concentrations of copper, zinc and cobalt.

Dag Bering’s father urged him to study manganese nodules in the Pacific when he first heard of them at the age of 10. Fifty years later, seabed minerals have finally been recovered from the NCS. Sadly, however, this key specialist is now retiring.

Shutting down the Troll A gas platform in the Norwegian North Sea for a year would cost NOK 226 million per day in lost sales revenues. And replacing its output with coal would raise Europe’s CO2 emissions by 150 million tonnes.

Equinor and its partners in Troll submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the third development phase for this North Sea field in 2018.

Young people must be talked with, not at. That is the lesson three newly-graduated industry representatives learnt after touring Norway last year to talk with schoolchildren. This committed trio also found that the global perspective is under-communicated.