Norway court pauses ban on two oilfield developments, Greenpeace says

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, the Oslo District Court had 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.

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, the Oslo District Court had 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 had 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. The appeals court will hold an emergency hearing on the ban itself already 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.

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