Offshore Norge – Climate and Environmental Report 2025

In April 2024, the Norwegian government presented a Storting white paper relating to "Norway's integrated management plans for the Norwegian marine areas. Barents Sea, the areas off Lofoten, the Norwegian Sea, North Sea, and Skagerrak", hereinafter referred to as Meld. St. 21 (2023–2024). The white paper clearly states that the purpose of the management plan is to create value through the sustainable use of marine area resources and ecosystem services while maintaining the structure, function, productivity, and biodiversity of ecosystems. Currently, there are primarily three major marine industries in Norway that are considered in the management plans. These are fisheries, shipping, and petroleum activities. Additionally, new industries such as offshore wind, CCS, mineral extraction, and aquaculture (outside 12 nm) are also included.

The management plans are a good and democratic tool, and Offshore Norge's members have been, and will continue to be, active contributors to building knowledge about the marine areas on the NCS and the impact that various industrial activities can have on marine natural resources. The petroleum industry has for many years been an important contributor to building knowledge about environmental values and the environmental impact of its activities on the NCS. It is important that this knowledge also becomes part of the professional basis and is utilised in the management of marine areas.

Offshore Norge actively works with our members to highlight this knowledge and participates with input. In this update cycle, Offshore Norge has participated in input meetings and submitted written input on the SVO report regarding environmental values, responses to factual errors/omissions in the factual basis, responses to the final factual basis and responses to the Storting white paper on ocean management plans for the Norwegian marine areas (2023–2024). The next revision of the ocean management plans is under way, and data about updates on the scientific basis can be found on Havforum.

The participation of interest groups is an important part of ecosystem-based management. In the process leading to the final professional basis for the management plan, the involvement of industries has been significantly weaker than in previous updates of the professional basis. The Storting white paper released in April 2024 now proposes the development of a concrete plan for involving affected interest groups in the work on the professional basis for the next management plan paper. Offshore Norge has provided responses to a new plan for involvement.

It is important that the management plan remains the overarching governance tool for Norwegian marine areas alongside relevant sector regulations.

Particularly valuable and vulnerable areas (SVO) have been identified through ocean management plans for marine areas. These are areas that, based on natural-scientific studies, are of key significance for biodiversity and biological production and where any adverse impact may have long-term or irreversible effects. The areas have been identified based on the EBSA criteria (Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas), an internationally recognised methodology for identifying environmental values in the sea.

SVOs do not have direct effects in the form of restrictions on industrial activity but signal the importance of exercising particular caution in these areas. Such caution is maintained through management measures, for example, through area-specific frameworks for petroleum activities. This can include restrictions such as drilling time limits, environmental mapping, measures to reduce the risk of acute discharges and emissions or long-term environmental damage, and requirements for monitoring and environmental assessments to follow up on the impact of petroleum activity. Considerable resources are spent on mapping, environmental monitoring, impact studies, and risk analyses in all phases of petroleum operations, to enable sound assessments of any operational limitations or mitigation measures.

In Meld. St 21 (2023–2024), there are 19 SVO areas, which is a consolidation of several previously defined areas, adjustments of earlier distributions, as well as the introduction of new areas. The number of SVOs is fewer, but the total area is significantly larger (approximately 60 percent of the Norwegian economic zone). Knowledge of vulnerability and distribution of environmental values in time and space is therefore essential for making sound assessments of any operational restrictions imposed on business activities. Both authorities and project developers can avoid costly restrictions on activities when vulnerable environmental resources are absent, or when the planned activities do not impact the resources in question. The white paper emphasises that area-specific frameworks for activities should not coincide with SVO boundaries and that management measures should be based on the best available knowledge of the distribution of environmental values in time and space.

Measures for conservation, sustainable use, and expertise are key components of comprehensive marine management. Conservation of areas can be achieved through marine conservation and other effective area-based conservation measures and is mentioned in St.meld.no. 29 (2020–2021) Comprehensive National Plan for the Conservation of Important Areas for Marine Nature. Marine conservation areas can be established under the Nature Diversity Act. This law has a limited scope on the NCS, and the rule for establishing marine conservation areas does not apply beyond 12 nautical miles. Area-based measures can be implemented based on sector legislation, and this has been done, for example, within fisheries management, where several coral reef areas are protected against harmful impact from fishing activities.

Norway has also signed several international conventions and agreements on biodiversity and has actively contributed to implementing them. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in 1992, and in December 2022, a revised nature agreement was adopted in Montreal, “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework". The new agreement includes specific targets for conservation, restoration, and financing, and states that 30 percent of all nature (land and sea) must be protected by 2030. The goal of conservation can be achieved through two main criteria: 1) Protection and 2) Other effective conservation measures (OECM).

The Norwegian government presented a white paper with Norway's new action plan for biodiversity in autumn 2024. The plan outlines how Norway will follow up on the Nature Agreement and aims to protect 30 percent of the country's land area. However, the government has announced that a target for marine areas will not be set until the process of determining which areas can already be considered protected has been completed. In the summer of 2024, the Norwegian Environment Agency submitted a new legislative proposal for consultation to establish a legal basis for the protection of marine nature outside territorial waters. Offshore Norge submitted its response, emphasising early stakeholder involvement, a solid knowledge base for assessing areas for protection, and the integration of protection processes into management plan development. The bill will be considered by the Norwegian parliament in spring 2025.

Historical data from the NCS shows that over the course of 50 years of oil and gas activity, no unintentional spills have occurred that have caused significant environmental harm, either from offshore operations, related transport, or associated onshore facilities. This does not mean that the industry claims a serious incident cannot occur from its operations.

The industry has invested significant resources in understanding which discharges could cause an impact, so that the most effective measures can be implemented. This commitment includes environmental mapping and monitoring to assess its condition, developing better methods for environmental monitoring, and conducting research. Measures include both preventive actions and mitigation measures, such as the substitution of chemicals (see Chapter 9.3) and oil spill preparedness.

A key part of this work is the comprehensive annual environmental monitoring of the NCS. Environmental monitoring on the NCS has been ongoing for nearly 50 years. The goal of the monitoring is to document the environmental condition and development, both as a result of human impact and natural variations. In addition, there is significant research activity organised by individual companies. This includes both the development of monitoring methodologies and a better understanding of the impact on the marine environment from the petroleum industry’s discharges.

Today, monitoring is conducted in accordance with Sections 52–56 of the Activities Regulations and the Norwegian Environment Agency's guidelines M-300. The scope of the monitoring is to be aligned with offshore petroleum activities in each region and adapted to the risk of pollution. Operators collaborate on the planning and implementation of the monitoring programmes. This cooperation enables a more effective and coordinated approach to environmental protection, while also promoting the use of best available techniques (BAT). The environmental monitoring is carried out by independent consultants according to guidelines and requirements from environmental authorities. The scope, methods used, and results are reviewed and quality-assured by an expert group on behalf of the Norwegian Environment Agency.

Monitoring includes studies in the water column, of seabed sediments, and benthic fauna. Additionally, visual mapping of the seabed is conducted in areas with presumed particularly vulnerable species, such as corals and sponges. Data from the environmental monitoring are shared with Mareano. Mareano is an interdisciplinary programme for mapping the seabed in Norwegian marine areas, led by the NEA, with the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), and the Norwegian Mapping Authority responsible for its daily scientific operations.

In the spring of 2025, a new peer-reviewed article by Jonny et al, was published in Marine Environmental Research. The article was funded by Offshore Norge, the companies' budgets for the monitoring programmes and the Norwegian Environment Agency. It provides a comprehensive review of Norway’s monitoring programme for the environmental impacts of petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf over the past five decades. The study shows that pollution from oily drill cuttings was once widespread, but that the 1993 discharge ban has led to significant improvements in sediment quality and macrofauna communities. Today, the impact of drill cuttings is mainly limited to areas within 250–500 metres of the discharge site. Monitoring of produced water has identified localised effects near discharge sites, but no clear evidence of ecological population-level impact. The article also covers visual surveys used to map vulnerable benthic fauna and the measures taken to prevent damage.

The authors recommend a more integrated approach to monitoring, incorporating new technologies and statistical methods, and strengthening the links between sediment, water, and epifauna monitoring to meet future requirements for ecosystem-based management.