Norwegian truckers to block oil terminals Monday

September 15, 2000 9:52am Source: Reuters

OSLO, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Norwegian truckers plan to block five oil terminals at key ports from Monday to protest at high fuel prices, Norway's NTB news agency said on Friday.

The truckers said they would block terminals in the ports of Oslo, Fredrikstad, Toensberg and two in Stavanger from Monday.

``We'll stay there until we're removed by the police,'' Knut Enger told NTB. Enger is an independent trucker who led blockades of roads into Oslo last winter to protest at high diesel prices in Norway.

Norway's fuel taxes are among the highest in the world but the nation had until now escaped the spate of protests across Europe this month triggered by a surge in oil prices to 10-year highs.

The truckers will be aiming their protest specifically at the price of diesel, which sells at about 10 Norwegian crowns ($1.08) a litre, almost half of that amount going in tax to the government.

But while truckers are suffering, Norway as a whole is cashing in on the oil bonanza. The nation pumps about 3.2 million barrels of oil per day and is the second biggest exporter behind Saudi Arabia. ^ REUTERS@

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 15, 2000

Answers

Think of the paradox here. If Norway produces so much oil, why should its prices be so high in their own country? This comes to quite a contrast with reality, I would think, and raises some serious questions as to what the oil situation, worldwide, really is.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 15, 2000.