Many have come forward

Preparedness has been stepped up at Norwegian oil and gas facilities following the sabotage against Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the North Sea.

Part of the backdrop for increased preparedness Reports of increased drone activity on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Amund Preede Revheim, division head of the environmental division in the North Sea and Sør-West police district, says he cannot answer details about the investigation into drone surveillance around the Norwegian continental shelf.

He says that the Sør-West police district has been investigating several incidents that have taken place over several months.

– Among other things, we have conducted several interviews, says Revheim.

Image and video content

Police did not want to elaborate on what these observations were.

Part of investigative work is going through photo and video material to verify this, Revheim says.

– Many of the sightings we received were not drones.

– We have to do this

Soldiers from the Home Guard (HV) have been assisting the police at petroleum facilities in Rogaland, Vestland and Møre og Romsdal since Monday.

Its purpose is to assist the police in preventing and preventing punitive or unnecessary incidents in Norway.

Kristoffer Knutsen, district manager of Heimevernet 09 in Westland, points out that this is the first time Heimevernet has undertaken such a sharp task on behalf of the police.

– But this is what we have practiced and what we can do, he says.

In the first phase, the police have sought the assistance of Home Guards for two weeks.

– We are ready to act as long as the police need help. I think there is a great desire to contribute to relevant and important work.

Will invite new HV players

Heimevernet’s communications manager, Per Gunnar Grosberghaugen, says the current task is not a challenge for Heimevernet.

– Now three HV districts are involved, but it does not mean that the entire districts are involved. We do not provide figures on how many have been called up, but it is not a very large force considering that Norway has a total of 40,000 HV soldiers, says Grosberghaugen.

The Home Guard will call in new recruits – not to augment the force, but to roll it out.

– We now invite more players to continue rolling. Whether we should increase the number is a police assessment, says Grosberghagen.

Many volunteers

He says there is no limit to how long each individual soldier can be on duty in the process of going under “extraordinary duty.” During training, the limit is six days.

– The housekeeper has a good dialogue with the work life in order to prepare an appropriate assessment so that the workload does not become excessive. We have many veterans who now want to volunteer in the service, so it varies greatly in terms of how challenging it is to make arrangements for employers. In practice, because of compulsory conscription in Norway, those who are called up get leave.

Currently, there is no need to call in soldiers from other parts of the country, Grosberghavn said.