Big Oil's dream of US$65b of crude fades away as Norway opts to defend natural wonder

Oslo

NORWAY'S oil industry has been salivating for years over the Arctic Lofoten islands, which could hold billions of barrels of crude. But it will likely have to keep dreaming.

The general election next month is unlikely to lift a deadlock that's keeping a ban on drilling off the environment-sensitive archipelago as more and more Norwegians are turning their backs on the industry that helped make the country one of the world's richest.