Climate Changed
Norway’s Huge New Oil Project Clashes With Growing Focus on Climate
- New field start-up is 33% addition to Norway’s crude output
- Burning all Sverdrup’s oil could send carbon emissions soaring
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The timing of Norway’s biggest oil project in decades is a bit awkward.
Equinor ASA kicked off its massive Johan Sverdrup field, a rare mega-project in the aging North Sea, at a moment where the pressure on the oil industry and governments to act against the climate crisis has never been greater. The field is set to produce crude for 50 years, well beyond the time where the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions should be net zero to avoid warming of more than 1.5 degrees.