Over a thousand beaches were contaminated with 63,000 tonnes of crude oil when the Prestige oil tanker sank off the coast of Spain and Portugal in 2002. The
environmental damage makes it the largest environmental disaster in that area on record. To prevent something similar from happening off the coasts of Northern
Norway, Norway needs to monitor Russia’s plans to drastically increase its oil exports. Photo: Scanpix / AFP
The risk of oil spills along the Norwegian coast may increase by as much as five
times by 2025. This is because Russia plans to increase the export of crude oil
through the Barents Sea to 100 million tonnes annually.
Text: Maja Sojtarić
Increased Russian
tanker traffic raises
oil spill risk
oil
spill
As a result, as much as one-third of
Russian crude oil will be transported along the
Norwegian coast.
“Oil transport from northwest Russia
accounts for the greatest increase in maritime
traffic along the Norwegian coast,” says Associ-
ate Professor Elise Karlsen.
She recently defended her doctoral disser-
tation in law on the legal options that Norway
has to try to prevent oil spills in the country’s
waters.
A dramatic increase in Russia’s oil capacity
Statistics show that 15 million tonnes of oil were
transported fromRussia toWesternmarkets via
the Barents Sea in 2010. Over the next five to ten
years, Russia plans to increase the capacity of its
Arctic ports to 100 million tonnes of crude oil.
“Fortunately, the Norwegian authorities
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research magazine
from
u
i
t
the
arctic
university
of
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