Together with three partners, the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF) has made seven reports on important development topics for the Norwegian oil and gas industry. When it comes to promising areas for exploration, the area outside Lofotoen is considered a definitely hot spot for the petroleum industry.
The Norwegian oil industry has for many years regarded the Lofoten area as the potentially most interesting area for oil and gas exploration. At the same time, the fish industry and environmentalists have protested against the plans, arguing that the risk of causing permanent danger to the fish stocks is too large.
The OLF report has this week been handed over to the Norwegian Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Terje Riis Johansen, thus putting even stronger pressure on the decision makers to come up with a conclusion for the future management of this area.
Surveys have shown that there is a good chance of finding large oil fields outside Lofoten, containing oil wells which could be more than four times the size of the Goliat oil field in the Barents Sea.
Norwegian authorities are to decide about the future of the Lofoten area based on a new management report to be presented in 2010. The current management report for the area states that only seismic mapping, but exploration can take place.
