By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme
The Norwegian Government has made its energy industry very competitive for both local and international companies without any local content requirements. Norway is the home to one of the world’s largest funds and when it comes to technological solutions in the offshore oil and gas industry, Equinor takes the lead.
Norwegian Energy Partners, Director for African region, Mr. Gulbrand Wangen disclosed this to our correspondent on a media chat at the sideline of the Nordic Nigeria Connect event recently held in Lagos, that there is no local content requirements in Norway, every company is welcomed to compete in the market whether established in Norway or abroad.
In his words, “In Norway, you always have to be competitive and there is no favorable policy for ownership in Norway. I don’t think there is a wrong policy to have joint ventures but it is important to see the joint ventures to be competitive globally because oil and gas industry is a broad industry.
“Companies have to compete in their national environment and if you go much to be local, the price will increase and it will not survive in the long run.”
Speaking about Norwegian Energy Transition, Mr. Wagen further explained that the government is currently working on how to face out oil and gas in Norway.
“Our oil and gas industry can produce for another 50 years but due to the Climate Challenge, the discussions going on in Norway is that how can we reduce the oil and gas dependency in the economy and start to move forward on Renewable Energy.
“Norway generates 98% of electricity from Hydropower and from that perspective; we are trying to bring green electricity to the platform in the North Sea instead of using gas,” he added.
Norwegian Energy Partners (NORWEP) is a non- profit, partnership organisation founded jointly by the Norwegian Energy Industry and the Government.
NORWEP’s mission is to support the partners winning contracts in international markets by promoting the capabilities of the Norwegian energy industry to clients abroad in 6 technology areas such as; Upstream Oil & Gas, Midstream Oil & Gas, Offshore Wind, Solar Energy, Hydropower, Energy Systems.