Statnett to Build Power Line to Northern Norway's Emerging Oil Region

Norwegian power grid operator Statnett will start constructing a new high-voltage power line to the country's north in 2016, it said on Thursday, bringing more electricity to what could emerge as the coutnry's new oil province.

The project is aimed at ensuring security of supply to the newly emerging oil and gas region, which has experienced a number of power blackouts in the past.

Though a plunge in oil prices has reduced appetite for costly projects in the Barents Sea, the government still expects the region to generate interest from oil companies as reserves in its mature North Sea fields decline.

The 300km line will stretch from Balsfjord to Skaidi near Hammerfest, where Europe's only natural gas liquefaction plant is based.

It will be an extension of another 150km line that Statnett started to build last year, with a projected cost of between 3.2 billion Norwegian crowns ($424.8 million) and 3.7 billion crowns.

The second stretch is expected to cost 4-6 billion crowns.

Combined, the two lines represent Norway's biggest ever power grid project, with completion expected around the end of this decade.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis)