Environmental groups ask Norwegian court to halt three oil developments

Oslo — Environmental groups said on Thursday they were demanding an immediate halt to the ongoing development of three Norwegian offshore oilfields, seeking a court injunction against the government.

Greenpeace and Nature and Youth said they had asked the Oslo District Court to put on hold Equinor’s Breidablikk and Aker BP’s Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, arguing the government had failed to assess their climate impact.

“Their recent approvals violate the Norwegian constitution and Norway’s international human rights commitments, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the two environmental groups said in a statement.

The Norwegian energy ministry said it was confident the relevant approvals did not violate the law and that direct and indirect emissions resulting from individual field developments had been considered.

“Still, it’s the right of environmental organisations to try this before the court,” State Secretary Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said in a statement to Reuters.

Equinor and Aker BP did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Norway is western Europe’s largest oil producing nation and the biggest supplier of natural gas to Europe, and the government says its petroleum resources are vital to the continent’s energy security.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said, however, that the government was obliged to assess global impacts on the environment from field developments, which green campaigners saw as a positive step.

The global impact assessments for Yggdrasil, Tyrving and Breidablikk were “either non-existent or highly inadequate, rendering the approvals invalid”, Greenpeace and Nature and Youth said on Thursday.

“The organisations demand that the development cease until the court has assessed the legal basis,” they added.

Breidablikk was approved for development in 2021 and is due to come on stream next year, while Tyrving and Yggdrasil received approvals earlier this month with plans for startups in 2025 and 2027 respectively, according to the operators.