Fish or fuel debate divides Norway's far north

Business Times 8 Sep 08;

(HENNINGSVAER, Norway) The pristine Lofoten Islands off Norway's far north paint an idyllic image of tranquillity, but beneath the surface is a roiling debate over the islands' resources, dividing fishermen, environmentalists and oil companies.

Oilmen spurred by the meteoric rise in oil prices have for some time been eyeing the picturesque archipelago, where high mountains plunge down into the sea.

Norway is currently the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, but it has seen its production of black gold decline since peaking in 2001.

And there have been no major discoveries in recent years to provide a glimmer of hope once its ageing, dwindling wells dry up.

'Production from the fields currently producing on the Norwegian continental shelf will be reduced by 50 per cent by 2023,' says Oerjan Birkeland, exploration manager for StatoilHydro in the far north.

'The region off Lofoten is of interest because we think there is a potential for oil and gas,' he adds.And that is exactly what environmentalists and fishermen do not want to hear.

These waters are home to the world's biggest remaining cod stocks, a species that has been a victim of overfishing in both Europe and North America, as well as the biggest herring stocks.

Fishing is the Lofoten Islands' main commercial activity. The coastline attests to this, dotted with quaint fishing cabins on stilts, some of which have now been converted into shelters for tourists - another important industry for the islands' 25,000 residents.

Each spring, a thousand-year-old tradition is continued: the cod is placed outdoors to dry on huge wooden structures, before being exported to southern Europe for another time- honoured tradition, the classic dish bacalao.

'For some islands, if there was no fishing you would have to leave,' says Hermod Larsen, the local head of the Raafisklag, the organisation that sells the fish. 'We have to live together (with the oil companies), but not in Lofoten.'

The government, under pressure from environmentalists and itself torn on the issue, has prohibited all oil activities in the unspoiled area until at least 2010, when the issue will be reviewed. With that deadline now just over a year away, StatoilHydro - a company 63 per cent owned by the state and which brings in a bundle to state coffers - has launched a major charm offensive emphasising its environmental efforts.

Maren Esmark of the Norwegian branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) brands the lobbying campaign as 'disgusting'.

'If you were to have an oil spill around Lofoten in the winter, it would be difficult to clean it because there are only four hours of daylight,' she says\. \-- AFP