“In order to give the Parliament the best possible basis for making a decision I have given the Petroleum Directorate (NPD) more time to conclude the on-going resource survey of Norwegian waters around Jan Mayen”, Borten Moe says. This means that the Parliament will not requested to decide on the opening of this area before summer, as Borten Moe’s goal has been, the ministry’s web site reads.
The first preliminary results indicate that expected hydrocarbon resources for the Norwegian part of the waters around Jan Mayen are 90 million standard cubic meters oil equivalents.
In March 2011 Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced that 180 million NOK will be spent on oil and gas mapping of the Jan Mayen waters in the period 2012-2014.
NPD concluded an extensive program of acquisition of 2D seismic around the Arctic island of Jan Mayen in August 2012.
Ola Borten Moe last week met with Iceland’s Foreign Minister Øssur Skarphedinsson to discuss petroleum activities on the Icelandic shelf and inform about the decision to postpone opening of Norway’s part of the waters off Jan Mayen, the ministry’s web site reads. In January 2013 Petoro Iceland AS, daughter company of Norwegian state oil company Petoro, was granted two licenses in the area between Iceland and Jan Mayen.
