Norway’s Minister of Oil and Energy, Terje Riis-Johansen, survived a vote of no-confidence put forward by the unified opposition in Parliament on Friday, thanks to the equally unified government coalition.
The opposition claimed that Riis-Johansen had intentionally withheld information about the prospects for the CO2 recapture project at Statoil’s Mongstad plant. They said he had even cheated the voters, since the carbon recapture project was was much promoted by the coalition parties during last year’s election campaign.
For their part, both Riis-Johansen and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, as well as officials involved claim they have provided Parliament with what they call “all relevant information”.
The vote of no confidence was, as expected, defeated by 86 against 83 votes.
