Norwegian politicians react to Equinor’s China deal

In recent weeks, Norwegian Equinor has entered into large contracts with Chinese Cosl for the rental of floating rigs.

Christian Tybring Gjedde, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, believes that Equinor’s contracts must be assessed against the Security Act.

“In practice, Equinor gives the Chinese Communist Party access to critical infrastructure in Norway, since all Chinese companies are required by law to cooperate with Chinese intelligence,” Gjedde said.

“The fact that they have done this without board consideration, and without the National Security Authority, intelligence or other state security bodies being involved in the process, seems like an obvious security deficiency at a high level,” he adds.

Equinor press spokesperson, Gisle Ledel Johannessen, says that they follow all relevant sanctions and guidelines, including the Safety Act.

“Our rig contracts are awarded on the basis of an overall assessment. Both commercial, technical and strategic criteria are emphasized,” Johannessen states.

Chinese-owned Cosl has denied to comment on the political reactions to the rig agreements.

Source: nrk.no