Oil strife can be decisive in the Norwegian election

On Wednesday evening, representatives of Norway's parliamentary parties met in a debate in Mongstad.

The choice of location was no coincidence.

Behind the politicians, Norway's largest oil refinery appeared to be emerging.

The oil and gas industry's goods or non-goods have sailed up as a crucial issue ahead of Monday's election.

The extraction generates important jobs and large revenues, but also extensive greenhouse gas emissions.

The opposition wants to see change

For many parties, the discussion is about how to step down in the long run.

It is really only the Green Party MDG that wants to set a concrete limit, and then already by 2035. Others believe that it is better for Norway to continue extracting gas and oil than for other countries to do so.

- If we do not produce Norwegian oil and gas with very low emissions, Russia and other countries will produce more, with completely different more environmentally hazardous emissions than we have here in Norway, says Member of the Storting Ove Trellevik from the government party Høyre.

Advocates for continued extraction also attach great importance to maintaining the many jobs created by the industry.

The opposition, for its part, believes that this is an unsustainable attitude.

If you really want to solve the climate crisis, it is not enough to produce oil a little cleaner than the neighboring country.

It is about how we should replace the oil with new renewable industries, says Arild Hermstad, deputy party leader for the Green Party MDG.

Erna Solberg hangs loose

The handling of the oil issue may be further complicated after the election.

All indications from opinion polls point to a change of government from Erna Solberg's right-wing coalition to a Social Democratic-led alternative, but exactly what it will look like is unclear.

The Social Democratic Labor Party has aimed to form a government with the Center Party and, secondarily, the Socialist Left Party.

They have previously seemed to achieve a majority, but later indications have shown that the lead has diminished.

- It may be that they have to bring in another party. Then it is the Green Party and Red on the far left that are on the agenda, but the Green Party has said that they will not support a government that supports continued oil extraction, says SVT's reporter Carl Fridh Kleberg on site in Norway.