Engineering news
A new energy partnership between the United Kingdom and Norway will help create more than 1,600 jobs and could secure affordable power supplies for decades.
Prime Minister David Cameron and his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg announced the agreement in Oslo at a meeting with leading energy firms from both sides of the North Sea.
The partnership with Norway will focus on affordable long-term gas supply as well as two-way investment in oil and gas exploration and the development of renewable technologies.
The Prime Minister described the delivery of sustainable energy supplies to meet ever-growing demand as “one of the most important challenges” the two nations face.
He said: “Affordable, secure energy from trusted and reliable partners is critical to this, and there is no stronger energy partnership than between Britain and Norway.”
One of the new investments, announced by oil services company Aker Solutions, will create 1,300 jobs by 2015 at an engineering hub in Chiswick, London.
David Cameron said the investment was “a vote of confidence in the skill, expertise and professionalism of our engineering sector”.
In the past five years, British companies have invested £13 billion in Norwegian oil and gas while Norway now meets more than a quarter of the UK's entire energy needs, David Cameron added.
Jens Stoltenberg commented: “We have signed a joint statement today underlining the importance of continuing to develop the energy co-operation between our two countries.
“I think it is important both for Norway and the UK. It creates economic growth, it creates jobs, it creates an even closer relationship between our countries.”
Norwegian company Statoil also announced plans to invest a further £12 billion in the Mariner-Bressay field off the north of Scotland. The company previously invested £6 billion in exploring the field, creating 700 jobs in Scotland.
Under the new deal UK and Norway will establish a joint business advisory group so companies can talk to the government directly on a regular basis, develop the supply chain and encourage new technologies such as carbon capture and storage.