Page 10 - EurOil Week 07 2023
P. 10
EurOil POLICY EurOil
Russia to gather intelligence on
Norwegian oil and gas facilities,
authorities warn
RUSSIA RUSSIA will try to find more intelligence about Europe has assumed even greater security pol-
Norway’s oil and gas infrastructure in order to icy importance as a result of the war in Ukraine,”
Drones were detected threaten European energy supplies, the Nordic PST said in its assessment.
near Norwegian oil and country’s policy security agency (PST) warned Norway has beefed up security at its oil and
gas infrastructure in in its annual threat assessment released on Feb- gas infrastructure since explosions as a result
the days after the Nord ruary 13. of suspected sabotage took place at the Rus-
Stream explosions. Though Russia is “unlikely” to carry out sab- sian-owned Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic
otage attacks on Norwegian territory this year, Sea in late September. It is asking for assistance
Moscow may be prepared to do so if it becomes from NATO to protect its infrastructure.
more willing to escalate the conflict with NATO “We have seen the emergence of Russian
and the West, PST said. ambitions to exert pressure on European energy
The threat assessment is the first Norwe- security,” the agency said. “PST, therefore,
gian authorities have released since Moscow expects that in 2023, Russia will try to gather
launched its invasion of Ukraine a year ago. intelligence about most aspects of Norway’s oil,
Since war broke out, Russian gas supplies to gas and power sector.”
Europe have drastically fallen, and are currently Norway, which shares a border with Russia
at around a tenth of the level that they were at the in the Arctic, raised its military’s level of alert
start of 2022. As a result, Norway has replaced in October, days after the incidents, when uni-
Russia as the continent’s biggest gas supplier. dentified drones were sighted in the vicinity of
“Norway’s role as an energy supplier to Norwegian oil and gas facilities.
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 16•February•2023
