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Our Arctic Neighbors: Norwegian fishermen disrupt seismic survey Most data acquisition proceeded as planned but some areas were blocked by opponents of drilling in controversial Lofoten region Sarah Hurst For Petroleum News
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has been unable to complete all of its planned seismic data acquisition in the far north this summer because of protests by fishermen. The NPD failed to survey part of the Vesteralen waters in the Norwegian Sea north of Lofoten because the fishermen blocked a seismic vessel from operating in the area, according to the online news site E24.no.
Major hydrocarbon resources are believed to be located in the Vesteralen and Lofoten waters, but the fishing industry is opposed to drilling there. The NPD offered fishermen compensation this year to stay away while the seismic surveys were taking place. Approximately 120 fishermen accepted the compensation, the NPD said in a release Aug. 3.
“This gave us access and enabled us to do our job, as we were asked to do by the Storting (Norwegian parliament),” said Sissel Eriksen, the NPD’s exploration director.
Data collected in Troms II area Seismic data acquisition was successful in the Troms II area, northwest of Senja, with a total of 311 square miles of 3-D seismic being acquired, the NPD said. The NPD now believes the data basis for Troms II is adequate to provide the Storting with the necessary technical assessment of the possibility of petroleum in the area. The data will be processed and interpreted, and the results will be submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in spring 2010. A revised management plan for the Barents Sea and the areas off Lofoten and Vesteralen will be presented to the Storting in 2010.
An environmental organization called Nature and Youth recently organized a training camp in Lofoten to train 260 young people from all over Norway on how to fight the oil industry in the region, the newspaper Aftenposten reported in early August. Part of the camp’s program included training on civil disobedience against the oil industry, training in which the participants aged 13 to 24 put on survival suits and threw themselves into the water.
Nature and Youth is planning for people to jump in front of tankers and oil rigs.
Norwegians go to the polls Sept. 14 and the election results will determine whether or not the government will support drilling in Lofoten.
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