Terje Aasland EU debates and reaffirms opposition of Norway to gas price cap!

On Thursday 27 October in Oslo, at a joint press conference with the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, the Norwegian minister of petroleum and energy, Terje Aasland, once again expressed his government’s opposition to the idea of a gas price cap, an option called for by several European Union countries.

#eudebates the unique initiative aiming to promote debate, dialogue, knowledge, participation and communication among citizens. #Energy #Aasland #Norway #inflation #Nordstream #sabotage #Russia #Gazprom #GAS #pipeline #pipelines #VonderLeyen #Nordstream2 #CAP #Prices #renewableenergy #renewable #LNG

Smruthi Nadig explores why the Petroleum Safety Authority of Norway has urged oil companies to be more cautious of unidentified drones. Recent developments in imaging and sensing technologies allow for the use of drones in various contexts. They are frequently used for critical infrastructure inspection and predictive maintenance.

A single drone could gather more data and more precise information than several cameras positioned all over a particular area. The use of drones by businesses can provide complete awareness when combined with data from stationary cameras. For remote monitoring and surveillance, drones are primarily used in the oil and gas sector, including infrastructure, equipment, tankers and trucks and other assets.

According to GlobalData research, drones can provide a 360-degree view for monitoring field operations. In addition, they can offer encroachment detection and monitor the development of facilities under construction. Oil and gas companies can inspect unmanned production platforms using drones and remote monitoring.

Drones are particularly useful in industrial accidents or natural disasters, and oil spills and fire incidents can also be mapped using real-time drone imagery and video analytics. However, growing tensions across the European oil and gas industry means that drones, and other advanced technologies, could be deployed in efforts to continue this conflict.

Unidentified drone activities
Despite this potential, the increase in drone usage has posed a number of new challenges for oil and gas companies. Operator companies on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) recently issued warnings about several sightings of unidentified drones/aircraft near offshore installations.

The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority urged oil companies and vessel owners to exercise greater caution after receiving numerous reports of unidentified drones flying near oil and gas installations off the coast of Norway.

The alert was issued after the oil and gas company Equinor revealed last month that it had alerted authorities to sightings of drones of unknown origin flying close to some of its platforms.

On 23 September, Petroleumstilsynet, the Norwegian governmental supervisory authority, said: “Operator companies on the NCS have recently given warnings [and] notifications of many observations concerning unidentified drones [and] aircraft close to offshore installations.”

The head of Norway’s police directorate, Benedicte Bjoernland, told the newspaper VG that sensors implemented following the leaks detected in Russian gas pipelines identified the drones.

European countries discovered two “unexplained” leaks in two Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark. The Danish Energy Agency announced the leak from the Nord Steam 2 pipeline in Danish Baltic sea waters on 26 September. The leak could cause a hazard to naval traffic. The Danish Maritime Authority issued a navigational warning and imposed a five-nautical-mile prohibitive zone.

According to the newspaper, a drone was spotted 50 meters away from Equinor’s Heidrun platform in the North Sea on September 20, breaching the 500-meter security perimeter. The sensors were put in place to detect unauthorised actors in the area, and dissuade anyone attempting to work in the area.

Security concerns
One of the recent sightings of an unidentified drone, according to the local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, took place close to the Gina Krog field. It is located 30 kilometres from the Sleipner field and 230 kilometres from Stavanger.

The Norwegian Government authorised Gina Krog as one of its offshore fields to increase production in July. This was one of the ways Norway met with increased demand for energy in Western Europe due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Following these security concerns, Norway decided to deploy its military to guard its oil and gas installations against potential sabotage. `Energy markets were in turmoil, and security concerns are at an all-time high due to gas leaks caused by suspected sabotage found on the Nord Stream pipelines on 27 September.