The UK and Norway have agreed what is being called a "landmark energy partnership" between the two countries designed to secure affordable and sustainable long term energy supplies. It was signed on 7 June by the two prime ministers David Cameron and Jens Stoltenberg.
The Norway-UK Energy Partnership for Sustainable Growth is intended to signal closer collaboration between the two countries across a wide range of energy activities, including safe and environmentally sensitive oil and gas extraction, long term gas supply, renewable energy investment, electricity interconnection and international climate change policy development. Alongside the agreement UK and Norwegian companies have announced billions of pounds of new investment with the potential to create thousands of jobs.
Commenting at a breakfast meeting attended by ten leading energy companies from the two countries, with combined annual revenues of more than £400 billion, prime minister Cameron said: "The jobs and investments announced today highlight how vital the strong relationship between Norway and the United Kingdom is for our energy security and economic growth. We look forward to strengthening our partnership further, driving investment into a diverse, sustainable energy mix that delivers affordable long term supplies for consumers."
Commercial announcements include:
Norwegian global oil services firm Aker Solutions will create 1300 skilled jobs by 2015 at its engineering hub in Chiswick.
Statoil intends to invest a further £12 billion over the lifetime of the UK's Mariner-Bressay North Sea oil fields in addition to the £6 billion they have already announced. This will lead to the creation of up to 300 new posts in the UK in the next few years, including those at a new operations base in Aberdeen, in addition to 700 from this investment that have already been announced;
A new Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between Statoil and Centrica to continue co-operation on gas supply and exploration. This builds on the £13 billion, ten year gas supply deal agreed between the two companies last November and follows the recent completion of a £1billion asset deal between the two companies that will increase Centrica's oil and gas reserves by 29 percent;
The Forewind Consortium, which includes Norwegian companies Statoil and Statkraft, has confirmed its intention to develop the 9 GW Dogger Bank offshore wind project off the East coast of Yorkshire, which could require up to £30 billion of investment. In addition Statoil and Statkraft are investing around £1 billion in developing the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm off the coast of Norfolk, which is already generating power and will be completed later this year. The project employs 500 workers in the field and provides significant secondary employment;
Good progress is being made on two projects to build subsea interconnectors between the UK and Norway, among the world's longest, which will enable the UK and Norway to share renewable energy resources, with each project worth over £1 billion. The consortia are NSN (National Grid and Statnett) and NorthConnect (SSE, Vattenfall, Agder Energei, E-CO and Lyse);
A deal between Shell and Gassco to strengthen UK energy security by providing the UK with more gas from Norway. By making better use of spare capacity in the UK gas transport system, Norwegian gas owners and transporters, including Shell, will be able to transport more gas from Norwegian fields via the Tampen Link to the FLAGS pipeline into St Fergus gas terminal, Scotland.
•Norway provides over a quarter of the UK's primary energy demands, supplying 42% of its imported gas and around 62% of its imported oil in 2011. The UK and Norway have developed a shared vision for joint work in the North Sea and beyond, which emphasises the ongoing importance of fossil fuel production, but also the need to promote low carbon growth through renewables and CCS.
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