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State budget emphasizes northern regions

Winter drill (Photo: Forsvarets Mediesenter)

Norway will use more money on petroleum activities and security issues in the High North. This became evident through the state budget that was presented on Thursday.

Location

The Norwegian Government allocates NOK 180 million (€23 million)to seismic exploration near Jan Mayen and in the newly established border area to Russia in the Barents Sea. This is nearly 30 percent more than the previous year. In addition, another NOK 84 million (€10,7 million) goes to seismic explorations and collection of data in the Norwegian Sea and the southern parts of the Barents Sea.

- This is good news for Norway in general and especially for Northern Norway, says Minister for Oil and Energy Ola Borten Moe. – Petroleum activities are moving northwards.

Read also: Norway one seismic year ahead of Russia

More to military activity in the north
A large part of Norway’s increased defence budget goes to northern Norway. The total defense budget for 2012 is NOK 40,5 billion (app €5,17 billion), or NOK 672 million (€85,8 million) more than the previous year.

- The extra funding will go to prioritized areas, first of all in the north. This means more personnel, training and exercises for Brigade Nord, a large winter drill in Northern Norway and more use of new planes and vessels in the northern areas, says Minister of Defense Grete Faremo.

Some one billion Norwegian kroner will be used for investments in construction and building in the country’s three northernmost counties.

Read the whole state budget here (in Norwegian)

No changes in Norwegian-Russian project cooperation
Fundings for Norwegian-Russian cooperation remains on the same high level. The budget post for project cooperation, including the Barents cooperation, is the same as the previous year.