Norway court puts ban on two oilfield projects on hold, Greenpeace says

The appeals court will hold an emergency hearing on the ban itself in April, while a date for a hearing on the main question of whether the fields were legally approved has not yet been set yet, Greenpeace said. The Norwegian Ministry of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Norwegian appeals court put on hold an injunction that could have halted the development of two oilfields operated by Aker BP, environmental group Greenpeace said on Thursday, in a win for the government and energy companies. In January, Oslo District Court granted a surprise victory to environmentalists by invalidating the approvals of two offshore projects, Yggdrasil and Tyrving, in addition to Equinor's Breidablikk, due to an insufficient assessment of their environmental impact by authorities.

The lower court also imposed a temporary injunction for issuing any new permits needed to continue development of the two projects operated by Aker BP. "The court of appeals has stopped the enforcement of the ban to issue the new permits (for the fields' development) until its written elaborations," Greenpeace Norway head Frode Pleym told Reuters.

Aker BP was not immediately available for comment. The appeals court will hold an emergency hearing on the ban itself in April, while a date for a hearing on the main question of whether the fields were legally approved has not yet been set yet, Greenpeace said.

The Norwegian Ministry of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Greenpeace said it hoped the government would not rush to approve the permits needed until the court rules on the injunction itself.

Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth, which brought the case to the courts, argued that the government failed to consider the impact on global climate from the use of oil and gas produced from the three new developments. They cited a 2022 ruling of Norway's Supreme Court which said future projects should assess impact from the expected petroleum use, not only from its production stage.

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