Managing the environmental effects of the Norwegian oil and gas industry: From conflict to consensus

In the early days of exploitation of the oil resources on Norway's continen tal shelf there was little control over environmental impacts. The oil comp anies expected effects of their activities to be found to a 1 km radius rou nd platforms. In the late 1980s data started appearing that suggested that effects were over much larger areas. These findings were disputed but subse quent studies showed that a more realistic figure of the area affected was a 3 km radius giving roughly 10 times the area predicted by the companies. The Norwegian authorities reacted by imposing restrictions on discharges of oil-based drilling cuttings and since 1993 oil-based drilling mud or cutti ngs have not been intentionally discharged to sea on the Norwegian shelf. I n 1996 Norway changed its offshore monitoring from field based monitoring o f sediments to a regional monitoring of both sediments and the water column , The change makes it possible to obtain a better overview of the environme ntal conditions, at the same time it also reduces costs for the operators. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.