The Norwegian government has confirmed it will appeal against a court ruling last month that the state had violated climate considerations when approving the development of three large oil and gas fields.
The ruling in the Oslo District Court regarding the state’s approvals process for the Breidablikk, Tyrving and Yggdrasil fields came about following a legal action by Greenpeace Nordic and the youth group Nature & Youth.
The field developers including Equinor, Aker BP and Vaar Energi were not parties to the case.
The court concluded that the approved plans for development and operation for the three fields were invalid and ordered a temporary injunction on the issuing of new permits for additional development activities at the fields.
As expected, the government said on Wednesday it is appealing against the judgment and ruling by the court.
“We disagree with the district court that a procedural error has been made in these three cases,” said Energy Minister Terje Aasland.
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“We believe that the proceedings have been in line with the regulations and the Supreme Court’s judgment from 2020. The state has followed up the Supreme Court’s judgment, and we now also assess combustion emissions when processing each individual development plan.
“We disagree with the judgment and ruling on temporary injunction, and have therefore decided to appeal.”
In the meantime, there is no impact on the current activities at the three fields themselves.
Aasland did say, however, that the Energy Ministry would make administrative changes in case management processes around combustion emissions because it was important for the public to have the opportunity to comment on this aspect of projects as well as creating the necessary predictability for the industry.
“Irrespective of the legal issues in this case, I believe it is important to create the widest possible trust in the proceedings that are carried out in the ministry. I am concerned that we should have good, inclusive processes also around assessments of combustion emissions.”
Oslo-based market sources told Upstream there is industry concern that the case around the three fields will not be isolated, and that the same ruling could be applied to all the recent plans for development and operation.