Norway group tables parliament vote on oil sands
Fri May 15, 2009 3:34pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/finance/green...
OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian opposition group said on Friday it would ask for a parliamentary vote next week over whether majority-owned oil producer StatoilHydro should withdraw from its $2 billion Canadian oil sands venture.
The move marks an escalation in a row between oil interests and the environment just four months before Norway -- the world's No. 4 oil exporter -- holds a parliamentary election.
Norway's Labour-led government said this week it would not back a resolution by environment activist group Greenpeace calling on Statoil to withdraw from the oil sands.
Without state support, the motion has no chance of passing at a Statoil shareholders meeting on May 19.
The Christian Democratic Party (KrF), a small center-right party, said it will put forward the motion for a parliamentary vote on Monday on how the government should vote on the issue.
"The most important thing is to put some pressure on the government," KrF's Even Westerveld told Reuters. "If they change their mind it's a great victory for the environment and for us."
Westerveld said the Labour government, which boasts it is one of the greenest in the world, had "double standards" when it comes to Statoil, one of Europe's biggest oil and gas producers.
Statoil bought 257,000 acres of oil sands leases in Alberta in 2007 to diversify from its aging North Sea oilfields. Last year it dropped plans for a $12 billion refinery there.
Greenpeace and other activists have long said tar sands are devastating for the environment and use too much energy.
(Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; Editing by Jon Hemming)
