Norway talks on huge oil find 'critical' as deadline nears

Oslo

WRANGLING over how to divide the spoils of Norway's biggest oil find in decades remain at a "critical" stage, hours before development plans are due to be submitted for a field that may deliver as much as US$175 billion income.

"We're not going to sign an agreement that doesn't reflect the real values in the licences," Rolf Jarle Broeske, a spokesman for Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA, one of the licence owners at the Johan Sverdrup field, said in a telephone interview. "Negotiations are now in a critical phase."