Norway reconsiders its policy after blow-out

Press, 3 May 1977, Page 9

Norway reconsiders its policy after blow-out

NZPA-Reuter Stavanger, Norway Norway has begun recon ' sidering its oil policy and( assessing damage done by a rogue oil rig that gushed 20,000 tonnes of oil into the! North Sea before it was plugged on Saturday. Experts in Stavanger said that the political repercus-) sions of the blow-out on the) rig, Bravo, were likely to' last long after the oil slicks had disappeared from the) North Sea. The Norwegian Minister of Industries (Mr Bjartmat! Gjerde) has already announced that Norway’s off-! shore oil industry will reconsider its future policy in the; light of the eight-day Bravo: blow-out. A prominent Norwegian Government official, who

I asked not to be named, has; said that the mishap will de-’ lay the consideration in Nor-) I way of further oil prospecting. Norwegian officials have reported that they have: ' skimmed almost 1000 tonnes jof pure oil from the sea since the Texan specialist,! Red Adair, and his team pinched off the gush. ; Mr Hans Christian Bugged who led a Norwegian Gov-; , ernment action team set un I in Stavanger to deal with ■ the mishap, said that with continued good weather it: (would be only a matter of jdays before the denser flecks; of oil had been scooped up.| “I think we have been' ; lucky,” he said. ' Experts forecast that the) oil slick, covering 2850 sq.’

sikm, would be mostly dissi--’pated by the wind and cur- ■ ; rents, and would not cause - the grave pollution crisis that! }had been feared at one stage.) ■ According to Mr Bugge, si the oil slicks will have prac-i s tically disappeared before! i, the mackerel begin spawning Jin the North Sea within two 11 or three weeks. Reconnaissance missions in) J the affected area have found) ■ (only about 20 dead birds, Hand the-e is only a very small) i chance of the oil reaching) i; coastlines, he says. ,! But Norwegian officials ex-; . pect that Oslo’s strong fish 'lobby, representing the 5 1 interests of conservative and .'scattered seaboard communJities along the west coast. , wall press the Government to stop or slow down the activ- ! jities of foreign oil com- .’ panies.