Norway and UK sign an Energy Pact for Resources Development

By Melanie van der Poll

Norway and Britain on Tuesday signed the energy pact that is aimed at increasing ties in fossil and renewable energy sources, and this includes CCS (Carbon-Capture-and-Storage) technologies that are under threat after the flagship projects was scrapped by the United Kingdom government last week.

Chris Huhne, United Kingdom Energy Secretary, and Ola Borten Moe, Norwegian counterpart, signed the agreement, according to the ministerial statement, in London to support the developing industry North Sea gas and oil resources using the emissions-mitigating technologies.

Charles Hendry, United Kingdom Minister said that their energy security is improved by close-links with Europe and Scandinavia.

Mr. Hendry said that as the North Sea neighbours, the United Kingdom has enjoyed beneficial and close ties with the people in Norway based-on gas and oil development. In addition, Hendry said that as CCS and renewables develop even more, it is vital that they work closely together in those areas too.

Norway and Britain said that they are planning to coordinate their energy policies in the bid to meet determined emission reduction targets.

Both sides repeated that the United Kingdom power generation will be underpinned by the Norwegian gas for the decades to come, saying that its use will be consistent with the United Kingdom emissions targets as the CCS rolls out.

Other points included that the joint field developments that are along the lines separating the Norwegian and United Kingdom Continental Shelf, while the resources development accelerates and works while the North-Sea fields’ lifespan is extended.

This promises to put the power interconnectors between Norway and the United Kingdom back on their drawing boards to further integrate the United Kingdom’s energy networks and also their largest distant gas supplier.

The United Kingdom and Norway have energy ties that are long-standing and dating back decades, because Norway is responsible for supplying much of the energy needed in Britain.

Norway is Europe’s second largest gas energy supplier after Russia and Norway meets Britain’s needs for gas via the two subsea pipelines. The pipelines also ship LNG (liquefied-natural-gas) to the United Kingdom, North America, Asia and Europe from Norway’s Snoehvit production plant found in-the Barents Sea.

The new technologies made both sides pledge to work as a team to develop the CCS demonstration projects that will drive forward the renewable resources.

The commitment that brought on developing CCS came a week after the future of CCS was in doubt after Britain’s government canceled the plans to provide funds for the project in Scotland, Longannet.

Insiders said that the scheme’s scrapping signaled that the technology is still too costly, and this is discouraging Britain’s drive to becoming a technology leader.

CCS is an unproven technology but it is seen as-a key mechanism that can fight climate change by burying the greenhouse emissions, at the same time maintaining a stable supply of energy.