Norway Names New Minister

Kjell-Borge Freiberg was appointed Norway’s petroleum and energy minister August 31, succeeding Terje Soviknes. Both men are from Norway’s right-wing Progress Party.

It follows in a mini-reshuffle by prime minister Erna Solberg (Conservative Party).

The new minister was elected to Norway’s parliament only last year but was previously an official (state secretary) at the same ministry from 2015-16 under minister Tord Lien and deputy minister there until summer 2017. He was previously a mayor of Hadsel in Nordland county in northern Norway, and has already declared he will not open the nearby fishery-rich Lofoten Islands up for oil and gas exploration. He previously worked in the fish-farming and fishing industries.

Soviknes had asked to be relieved of his job, so that he could spend more time with his family; this year he has been dogged by accusations of historic sexual impropriety. Soviknes had been seen as more supportive of opening up closed areas, such as Lofoten, to exploration. A rushed push towards the latter brought down his predecessor Tord Lien who was sacked by Solberg in December 2016.

Soviknes had also stalled the approval of an asset swap between OMV and Gazprom of offshore Norwegian assets, so those both firms will be hoping for a change of approach from Freiberg; the two companies said last month they were confident that the swap would be approved by the end of this year. OMV originally planned to have the deal wrapped up during 2016.

Norway's new petroleum and energy minister Kjell-Borge Freiberg (Photo credit: the government/Scanpix)