News story

Prime Minister on energy visit to Norway

A landmark agreement strengthening energy links between the UK and Norway.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The Prime Minister became the first British Prime Minister to visit Norway in 26 years when he arrived in Oslo on a visit aimed at ensuring a secure, affordable energy supply for the UK for decades to come.

Following a working dinner with Prime Minister Stoltenberg, they met with senior executives from ten leading energy companies with combined annual revenues of over £400 billion and announced a landmark agreement strengthening energy links between the UK and Norway, focused on safe and environmentally sensitive oil and gas exploration, long term gas supplies, investment in renewable energy and electricity interconnection.

As part of the agreement, the two countries will establish a joint business advisory group so that companies can talk to government directly on a regular basis about how to help incentivise investment; develop the supply chain particularly for SMEs; and encourage new technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

At the working breakfast, a number of companies set out further expansion and investment plans which together will create more than 1600 new jobs in the UK and result in tens of billions of investment.

Ahead of his visit to Norway, the Prime Minister said:

I’m going to Norway to make sure that we’re doing all we can to meet our growing energy demands in an affordable way. Today Norway supplies over a quarter of the UK’s entire energy needs and is a major investor right across our energy sector. I hope that my visit to Oslo will help secure affordable energy supplies for decades to come and enhance investment between our two countries.

Tomorrow, Prime Minister Stoltenberg and I will agree a new UK-Norway Energy Partnership. This will mean more collaboration on affordable long term gas supply, more reciprocal investment in oil, gas and renewable energies and more commercial deals creating thousands of new jobs and adding billions to our economies.

Norway supplies over a quarter of the UK’s energy demand. In the past five years, British companies have invested more than £13 billion in Norwegian oil and gas. The UK oil and gas industry supports 350,000 jobs and another 100,000 exporting goods and services.

The UK is already working together with Norwegian companies on major renewables projects such as Dogger Bank - the world’s largest offshore wind project. And on connecting up electricity grids to strengthen green energy supplies for both countries.

The Prime Minister’s visit to Norway will help ensure the continued security and competitiveness of energy supplies to Britain, from a trusted and reliable neighbour.

Note to editors:

The ten energy companies participating tomorrow are: Fred Olsen, Gassco, Aker Solutions, National Grid, NorthConnect, Shell, Statoil, Statnett, Statkraft and Centrica.

Published 6 June 2012