OSLO, June 5 (Reuters) – Statoil delayed a $15.5
billion Arctic oil project on Wednesday due to a planned tax
increase, dealing a blow to the Norwegian government’s hopes of
creating a new oil region in the far north.

State-controlled Statoil said it would halt the Johan
Castberg development, the biggest project in Norway’s part of
the Barents Sea, and withhold contracts for now after the tax
rise sharply raised its already high break-even cost.

KIRKENES, Norway (Reuters) – Iceland could reach a deal with foreign creditors on a debt write-off before the end of the year and will use the money gained to reduce household debt, its new prime minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson said.

Creditors appear open to a deal based on early talks but the government is also preparing a plan B, which would involve setting up a temporary fund to pay for household debt relief and then recouping the costs once a deal is done, he said.

OSLO (Reuters) – Salmon farmer Cermaq (CEQ.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rebuffed a raised $1.7-billion bid from rival Marine Harvest (MHG.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Friday in a takeover battle which pits Norway’s government against Harvest’s biggest shareholder, the maverick shipping tycoon John Fredriksen.

Marine Harvest (MHG.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest fish farmer, first offered to buy Cermaq for a mix of cash and shares and then dangled the prospect of an even higher offer on Friday, but only if the board, and the government as Cermaq’s biggest shareholder with a 43.5 percent stake, would support the deal.

NY-AALESUND, Norway, May 31 (Reuters) – The high Arctic,
once the irresistible frontier for oil and gas exploration, is
quickly losing its appeal as energy firms grow fearful of the
financial and public relations risk of working in the pristine
icy wilderness.

The Arctic may hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered
oil and 30 percent of its gas, but a series of blunders and
failures there are making executives fight shy of such a
sensitive area and turn their attention back to more
conventional resources and the shale revolution.

OSLO, May 31 (Reuters) – Marine Harvest, the
world’s biggest fish farmer, slightly raised its bid for rival
Cermaq on Friday, saying it would have offered more had
it got the backing of the target company’s board.

Marine Harvest, controlled by shipping tycoon John
Fredriksen, said it would pay 107 crowns per share in a cash and
share deal, above the 104 crowns offered before, but below the
stock’s recent trading price.

OSLO, May 30 (Reuters) – Ole Oeiseth doesn’t like leaving
his house without a gun.

“A polar bear can come anytime and from anywhere; the hungry
young males are especially unpredictable,” he said.

OSLO, May 30 (Reuters) – Frontline Ltd, the tanker
arm of shipping tycoon John Fredriksen’s business empire,
expects losses to widen in the second quarter and may struggle
to repay a 2015 bond as the shipping crisis shows no sign of
abating.

The global shipping sector has seen four years of crisis as
vessels purchased in an order binge before 2008 hit the waters,
creating overcapacity as demand remains anaemic.

NY-AALESUND, Norway (Reuters) – Shipping along the Arctic northern sea route is set to grow more than 30-fold over the next eight years and could account for a quarter of the cargo traffic between Europe and Asia by 2030, experts said on Wednesday.

With global warming thawing sea ice, the route, which runs along Russia’s northern coast and links Europe with ports in East Asia, is opening for longer and longer each year.

OSLO, May 16 (Reuters) – Offshore oil industry services firm
Subsea 7 is facing a plethora of challenges, including
project award delays, weaker pricing, supply chain bottlenecks
and cost pressures, it said on Thursday.

Subsea 7, which provides surface and subsea engineering and
construction services for oil firms around the world, said its
order backlog continued to surge and it would remain disciplined
in bidding for new work, but it was facing many of the same
challenges that are slowing the global oil service business.

OSLO, May 2 (Reuters) – Marine Harvest, the world’s biggest
fish farmer, took its $1.7 billion hostile bid for
state-controlled rival Cermaq directly to Norway’s
trade minister on Thursday after the firm’s board rejected its
initial bid.

Harvest, controlled by shipping tycoon John
Fredriksen, said it would appeal to shareholders including the
government, which holds 43.5 percent of Cermaq, in its bid to
create a global giant that would be a top player in everything
from feed to processing.