Kystvakten – Norwegian Coast Guard
Kystvakten – Norwegian Coast Guard

Summary/Abstract: Norwegian maritime areas span over 2.5 million square kilometres. Among Norwegianmaritime resources, oil and natural gas deposits play the most important role (about 6000 oilwells were drilled: 4996 in the North Sea, 836 in the Norwegian Sea and 168 in the BarentsSea). Norway is currently the sixth-largest gas producer and 13th largest producer of crude oilin the world. In 2016, oil and gas exports gave Norway a total revenue of 350 billion kroner,constituting 37% of the value of en bloc exports (47% of the value of exports of goods). Thestability of the commodity market and the maintenance of the undisturbed operation oferected mining installations are, therefore, of paramount importance for maintaining a highlevel of Norway’s social, economic and political security. In an unfavourable political andmilitary situation, however, sea mining can turn into the most difficult element to protect ofthe critical infrastructure of the state. In turn, the value of exports of fishery products andthe closely related processing industry is estimated at around 48 billion NOK, which is a significantpart of the state’s revenue. In addition, these branches play an important social role,which in a welfare state is an extremely important issue. The two aforementioned examplesclearly show that Norwegians have good reasons to protect their maritime territories. A specializedformation called the Coast Guard (Kystvaken) is dedicated to this task.

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