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USD 1 = NOK 7.3 No. 27 - 7 September 1993
CONTENTS:
Oslo agreement - a diplomatic triumph (1-2)
Labour set to hold the fort (3)
14th round of concessions (4)
Bug boost for Norwegian environmental technology (5)
Welfare state too costly for future generations (6)
Watchdog for northern waters (7)
Heartsaving invention (8)
Poll: Storting should follow advice of people (9)
Cure for blowouts (10)
norinform/1-2 7 September 1993
OSLO AGREEMENT - A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH
Norwegian secret diplomacy has played an important role in bringing
about the tentative peace agreement between Israel and the PLO which was
initialled in Oslo on 20 August, in which the PLO and Israel reached
accord on limited self-autonomy for Palestine. The basis for parts of
the new agreement, which is a major breakthrough in the long deadlocked
situation, was in fact laid at meetings in the home of Norwegian
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Johan Joergen Holst.
In October 1991, direct negotiations started in Madrid between Israel
and the PLO in what Johan Joergen Holst called the "front door" to peace
in the Middle East. Later, Norway entered the proceedings by providing a
"back door", playing an "honest broker" role in negotiations which have
complemented the official Middle East talks in Washington and which had
the full approval of the Clinton administration.
At a press conference last week, Johan Joergen Holst outlined the major
role that Norway has played in bringing about the historic agreement. A
total of 14 PLO-Israeli meetings have been held in Norway under
conditions of deepest secrecy, 11 of them during the past four months
alone. "Our mission has been to mediate when the two sides sides felt
the need for it," said Holst.
He said that negotiations were carried out in three phases; a
preparatory one from January 1992 to January 1993, an "academic" study
from January to March this year and direct negotiations from April to
August. According to Holst Norway's role as secret mediator began with
FAFO - the Norwegian Trade Union Centre for Social Science and Research.
Since 1988 FAFO has been working on a study of the living conditions of
Palestinians in the occupied territories. This secured them contacts
among both Israelis and the PLO which provided a key to opening a
diplomatic "back door" in Oslo. FAFO too played a major role, acting as
an intermediary in the up to 20 telephone calls a day between the two
sides.
The Norwegian "delegation" consisted of two married couples, Holst and
his wife Marianne Heiberg, who has led the FAFO study group, and FAFO
head Terje Roed- Larsen and his wife Mona Juul, who works in Holst's
secretariat. Holst is convinced that this "family atmosphere" broke
down the barriers of suspicion and reserve and got the two sides on good
terms.
"The fact that Norway has played a central role in negotiations gives us
a reason to doubly rejoice" says Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland,
who believes that it was the Norwegian labour movement's close contacts
with both parties in the Middle East conflict that enabled Norway to
provide such an important contribution. She also says that the new plan
necessitates extensive international aid to the people in the areas
involved. Holst has already enlisted the help of the other Nordic
countries in procuring funds, and the joint Nordic contribution to the
Palestinians is expected to be in the region of USD 140 million.
norinform/3 7 September 1993
LABOUR SET TO HOLD THE FORT
The governing Labour Party seems set to emerge reasonably well from the
General Election set for next Monday. An average of the all opinion
polls conducted in August reveals that Labour is likely to achieve a
result on a par with its showing in the election of 1989 - 32.9 per cent
of the votes as against 34.3 per cent in 1989. Adding to Labour's
chances is the fact that Gallup results in recent weeks reveal that the
party is nudging steadily forward. It seems therefore likely to achieve
the same number of mandates in the national assembly as in 1989; 63 out
of a total of 165.
An outcome like this will be encouraging for the party leadership, which
has been fighting against head winds for some time. This can be
ascribed to the unemployment figures - now standing at 8 per cent, and
the conflict surrounding Norwegian EC membership. The Gallup poll
average also indicates a landslide for the Centre Party, the party most
emphatically opposed to EC membership. According to estimates, Centre
could make a huge leap forward, doubling its number of mandates from 11
to 23. A corresponding falloff is expected for the far-right Progress
Party, from 22 to 11 mandates.
The Labour party's strongest challenger to the left is the Socialist
Left party, which appears to be holding its own. Its Gallup support is
decreasing, but the figures are still higher than in 1989. At this
election the party won 17 mandates; it now seems set to win 20.
The Conservatives appear to be moving neither forward nor back with 39
mandates as against 37 in 1989. If the Gallup figures hold true, the
Labour Party and the Socialist Left will together approach an absolute
majority in the Storting and the government of Gro Harlem Brundtland
will remain in place.
norinform/4 7 September 1993
14TH ROUND OF CONCESSIONS
The three Norwegian oil companies, Statoil, Norsk Hydro and Saga
Petroleum have been granted 8 of 17 new operating concessions on blocks
in the 14th round of concessions on the Norwegian shelf. As previously
leaked in the press, neither Esso nor Shell have been awarded new
concessions. But for the first time, the American oil company Amerada
Hess will become an operator, announced Minister of Industry and Energy
Finn Kristensen at the 'Petro 93' conference in Harstad, North Norway on
1 September.
Statoil was awarded four concessions, Norsk Hydro three, and Saga one.
BP and Amoco won two each, and Amerada Hess, Elf Petroleum, Mobil, Norsk
Agip and Norske Conoco were each awarded one operator concession on the
shelf. The permits to pump up hydrocarbons involve 31 blocks or sections
of blocks. Eleven of the concessions are for blocks in the North Sea,
four off Mid-Norway, and two in the Barents Sea.
Five overseas companies have been offered the right to buy portions of
the licences - British Enterprise Oil, Japanese Idemitsu Petroleum,
Finnish Neste Petroleum, American Phillips Petroleum, and French Total.
A 15th round of concessions will be announced next spring, and new
concessions will be granted in about two years.
norinform/5 7 September 1993
BIG BOOST FOR NORWEGIAN ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
Norwegian environmental technology is being exported like never before,
and money is pouring into the accounts of Norwegian producers.
Prospects of revenue equal that of North Sea oil companies, and 300 new
jobs were created last year in the wake of the developments.
Dr. Tore Audunson at the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (NTNF) painted a very positive picture of Norwegian
environmental technology's prospects at the large environmental
conference "Environment Northern Seas" in Stavanger recently. Since the
research programme, Ekspomil, started a year and a half ago as a joint
venture between research and industry, NOK 400 million has been invested
in environmental technology for export. NTNF and the State Pollution
Control Authority (SFT) are footing 30 per cent of the cost, while the
private companies provide the rest. About 4,000 people are involved in
the venture, and last year 300 jobs were created by the trade.
The main bulk of the industry consists of surveillance technology,
reduction in industry waste to water, air pollution and waste
management. Annual turnover stands at NOK 3.6 billion, half of which
derives from exports. Export of Norwegian environmental technology has
proved to be big business. Results are good among the companies involved
in the venture; for every Norwegian Krone going into research, two have
come out, and growth in turnover stood at 11 per cent from 1991 to 1992.
norinform/6 7 September 1993
WELFARE STATE TOO COSTLY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Norwegians are living too well - at the expense of coming generations.
Unless public spending is drastically cut or taxes considerably
increased, a crushing bill for the welfare state will be handed on to
the descendants of those now enjoying its benefits.
This is the essence of a report recently prepared by Professor Erling
Steigum jr. at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business
Administration and professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff of Boston University.
Looking 30 years into the future, the two professors have worked out a
prognosis of the effects of present overspending, with its accompanying
massive budget deficits, on generations to come.
According to the report, over-consumption in Norway now stands at more
than USD 5 billion per year. If this development continues unchecked,
future generations will have to pay much higher amounts in tax and
duties than those applying at present. In a chilling scenario, the
researchers predict that value added tax may have to be be raised from
its current 22 per cent to 48 per cent. An alternative could be to slash
welfare benefits such as old age pensions by more than 50 per cent.
State Secretary Svein Harald Oeygard, at the Ministry of Finance, which
financed the study, says that many of the figures from the report have
been incorporated into the Government's long-term programme for the next
four years, in measures to prevent the type of development envisaged by
the researchers.
norinform/7 7 September 1993
WATCHDOG FOR NORTHERN WATERS
Norwegian scientists at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing
Centre in Bergen are currently building up a warning service for ice
conditions in northern waters. They will receive their information from
the European Remote Sending Satellite (ERS).
The purpose of the new service is to make navigation safer in the waters
around the arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Greenland and the northern
Barents Sea, where large amounts of ice pose a serious threat to
shipping. The European Space Agency, ESA and Norsk Romsenter - the
Norwegian space centre - commissioned the Nansen Centre to establish the
new service, which will benefit researchers, the fishing fleet, the oil
industry, the Coast Guard and tourist and trading ships trafficking
northern waters. Data will be read off at the Tromsoe satellite station
and transmitted to the Nansen Centre for further processing.
In the course of the 1990s, the ice warning system will be expanded with
the addition of information from the new European environmental
satellite which is to be put into orbit in 1995. One year later the
Canadian RADARSAT will add its contribution. The Nansen Centre has built
up extensive ice observation models on the basis of several years'
research. When combined with information from the satellites, this will
provide an important warning system. The Nansen Centre will also feed
data on ice conditions to the research vessel "Joides Resolution", which
is now conducting a comprehensive climate and geology research programme
in the Fram Straits, near Greenland. This is the biggest ice research
project ever carried out so far north.
norinform/8 7 September 1993
HEARTSAVING INVENTION
Two Norwegian doctors have developed a heart compression machine which
may save countless lives that would previously have been lost.
Heartsaver 2000, is the name that the doctors, Hans A. Lossius and Lars
Vorland, have given to their invention, which can keep heart attack
patients alive until proper treatment can be given. Weighing only 8
kilos, Heartsaver has its own batteries, which operate for 40 minutes
but it can also be connected to any power supply. As heart compression
in a racing ambulance is very difficult to carry out, this time gain can
be of vital importance to patients who must be transported a long way to
a hospital. Previous attempts to construct a machine which will
effectively resuscitate a patient have been unsuccessful as the machines
have either been much too heavy, causing damage to internal organs, or
have not performed the function they were designed for.
Exhaustive tests both in Norway and at the International Resuscitation
Research Center in Pittsburgh, USA, have demonstrated that Heartsaver
2000 is simple in use, reliable and efficient. Major institutions in the
USA and Japan are extremely interested in the invention and a national
Japanese committee has already recommended that the machine be installed
in every ambulance in Japan.
The Stavanger concern, Laerdal Medical, already a well-known name in the
field of medical equipment, has purchased the company which developed
the machine and taken over the international patent rights. It plans to
launch Heartsaver on the world market within a few months. Claiming that
there is almost no competition, it is confident of success.
norinform/9 7 September 1993
POLL: STORTING SHOULD FOLLOW ADVICE OF PEOPLE
A large majority of Norwegian voters say that the Storting should
respect the will of the people in a national referendum on Norwegian EC
membership, a poll in the Aftenposten newspaper shows. 73 per cent of
those questioned say that Storting members should respect the result of
a referendum, whatever its outcome. 18 per cent say Storting
representatives should be allowed to interpret the result, while ten per
cent remain undecided.
There are few differences in opinion between interviewees in the "no"-
stronghold of north Norway and those in the presumed "yes"-region of
Oslo and its neighbouring county, Akershus.
82 per cent of those who will vote "yes" and 69 per cent of those who
will vote "no" say the Storting should defer to the will of the people.
Even a majority of the supporters of the staunch "no" parties Centre and
Socialist Left think the voice of the people should be heeded. The
topic is currently the subject of much debate within and between the
parties. More than 80 per cent of Labour, Conservative and Party of
Progress supporters say that the Storting must follow the advice of the
people.
In another opinions poll, published in the newspaper Verdens Gang, 54
per cent of those polled said that the Government did right in applying
for EC membership, 26 per cent were opposed to the move, while 18 per
cent had no opinion on the issue. Support for the EC application was
strongest in the Labour party, the Conservatives and the Progress Party.
But among Euro-sceptics too there were many who thought the Government
did the right thing in applying. More than one third of voters in the
Centre Party, the Socialist Left and the Christian Democrats share this
view.
norinform/10 7 September 1993
CURE FOR BLOWOUTS
Oil wells on the verge of a blowout can be shut off within 10-15 seconds
with the aid of a new safety valve developed at the University of
Trondheim (NTH), in mid Norway.
The NTH and SINTEF (Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research)
magazine, Gemini, writes that the new valve, which is placed in the well
itself,is likely to make offshore oil production both safer and cheaper.
The valve is positioned on the drill string, 30 to 200 metres behind the
drillbit. Present safety valves are either placed on the seabed or on
deck. Thus, several minutes can elapse before the crew discovers that a
blowout is about to occur and manages to close the valve, By this time
a lot of damage may have been done.
"If a blowout is imminent, it is an advantage to control the pressure
and inflow down in the well itself, rather than on the surface. We can
also use the drilling mud which is still circulating to create counter-
pressure," says researcher Jostein Sveen at the University's institute
for petroleum technology and applied physics.
A number of prototypes of the new valve have been successfully tested,
most recently on board the oil platform "Polar Pioneer". A final test
this autumn will determine whether the valve will be put into
production.
.