Unless the remaining days of December surprise us with a world-beating hydrocarbon discovery, 2019 will go down as one of the weakest years on record in terms of new oil additions. Conventional oil and gas discoveries have fallen to a 70-year low and unconventional failed to impress, too. Under circumstances like this, oil companies continue to focus on the low-hanging fruits – focus on drilling in acreage adjacent to existing infrastructure or prioritize short-term low-reserve shale reserves which do not necessitate such long-term commitments. The Arctic, reported to contain around 1/6 of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves, might provide the solution – if only Arctic countries were not bound to turn away from it. As Norwegian oilmen celebrate the successful commissioning of the Johan Sverdrup field, truly a milestone in the country’s turbulent 21 st century path, there several signs which foretell a much more troublesome future for anyone […]