OSLO — Norway’s moratorium on oil exploration in the waters around the Arctic Lofoten-Vesteraalen-Senja archipelago will remain in place, the country’s new oil minister Kjell-Boerge Freiberg told reporters on Friday.
The oil industry has for many years sought to explore the region, but this is a controversial political topic in Norway.
Kjell-Boerge Freiberg, a former mayor of a town in the Lofoten region, replaces Terje Soeviknes, who had been oil minister for only 20 months, in a cabinet reshuffle.
Reporting by Terje Solsvik.