Heli­c­op­ter base on Bear Island (Bjørnøya)?

The­re is a gro­wing deba­te within the Nor­we­gi­an oil and gas indus­try and poli­tics about a heli­c­op­ter base on Bear Island (Bjørnøya), a rele­vant issue in view of gro­wing acti­vi­ties of the indus­try in the nor­t­hern Barents Shelf area, which can­not direct­ly be rea­ched by heli­c­op­ters from north Nor­way. To reach the­se remo­te are­as, all heli­c­op­ters inclu­ding search-and-res­cue helos need to refuel on Bjørnøya, an ope­ra­ti­on that takes time and resour­ces which might be cru­cial in cases of emer­gen­cy.

Bjørnøya was declared a natu­re reser­ve in 2002, which is the stric­test pro­tec­tion sta­tus an area can get. Excluded is a small area around the wea­ther sta­ti­on in order to keep the acti­vi­ty the­re away from trou­ble. But alre­a­dy befo­re the Bjørnøya Natu­re Reser­ve was declared, the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment made clear in a govern­men­tal decla­ra­ti­on (Stortings­mel­ding Nr. 9, 1999-2000) that pro­tec­ti­ve legis­la­ti­on might be remo­ved for some are­as to estab­lish infra­struc­tu­re con­nec­ted to acti­vi­ties of the oil and gas indus­try. A sui­ta­ble area was alre­a­dy iden­ti­fied on the north coast of the island, east of the sta­ti­on.

The ques­ti­on of SAR and oil spill faci­li­ties beco­mes more and more important in the light of incre­asing indus­tri­al acti­vi­ty in the area.

Source: Radio Nord­kapp

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