The rulings were temporarily lifted in March, but the government is looking to make this permanent as it seeks revenue to ease Norway’s energy transition.
Norway’s Government wants an appeals court to lift injunctions against developing three oil and gas fields.
It is seeking to overturn a verdict in January that invalidated the permits due to environmental concerns.
In January, Greenpeace and Norwegian youth environment protection organisation Nature and Youth brought a lawsuit against Norway’s Energy Ministry claiming that it had failed to consider the climate impact from the ongoing operation of its oil and gas fields.
The Oslo District Court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and determined that the environmental impact of the extracted fossil fuels was not properly assessed.
It also ordered several temporary injunctions against the development of the three fields – Yggdrasil, Tyrving and Breidablikk.
The government will ask the appeals court on Wednesday to permanently lift the injunctions after it delayed them temporarily in March, enabling the government and field operators Aker BP and Equinor to continue operating the oilfields.
The oil and gas industries are key sectors in Norway’s economy. According to the International Trade Administration, Norway is the 8th-largest natural gas producer in the world and replaced Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas in 2022.
The nation is also a major producer of oil, with the petroleum sector being its largest industry.
Oslo fears that limiting the development of new oil and gas fields could cost the country billions of dollars in revenue. While it seeks to continue its hydrocarbons business for years to come, it claims it is doing so within the framework set out by the Paris climate accords including the net-zero emission target for 2050.
Aker BP began producing oil from the Tyrving field earlier this week, with the development consisting of three wells and two new subsea installations.
