As one oil major after the other considers leaving Norway, the alarm bells are sounding at the country’s Petroleum and Energy Ministry. Officials warned companies this month that they could be on the hook for the billions of dollars it costs to close oil fields even if they sell their entire local subsidiary, a liability previously limited to individual assets. That would guard against sticking taxpayers with the bill if the smaller, more vulnerable producers taking their place are unable to cover the eventual expenses of removing platforms and installations. “They’re afraid that some of the mainstays, like Shell and Exxon, will exit the Norwegian shelf,” Erik Haugane, an industry veteran now heading OKEA AS, a small oil company, said in an interview in Stavanger on Thursday. “It looks like a strange attempt to slip them a poison pill in the process.” As Big Oil shifts strategy to cope […]