Western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer is falling out of love with oil.
To the dismay of the nation’s powerful oil industry and its worker unions, the opposition Labour Party over the weekend decided to withdraw its support for oil exploration offshore the sensitive Lofoten islands in Norway’s Arctic, creating a solid majority in parliament to keep the area off limits for drilling. Estimates suggest that 1 to 3 billion barrels could be hiding off the archipelago, but Norway’s government isn’t budging. This comes just a month after Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund announced it will dump investments in firms that explore for oil and gas. The dramatic shift by Norway’s biggest party is a significant blow to the support the oil industry has enjoyed and could signal that the Scandinavian nation is coming closer to the end of an era that made it one of the world’s most affluent.
