The youth environmental organizations Etas of the Archangelsk region, Nature and Youth of the Murmansk region and Natur Og Ungdom of Norway have expressed concern about oil and gas extraction in the Russian and Norwegian sections of the Barents Sea.

Earlier this week, the three organisations signed the Conception of joint actions and requirements for solution of environmental problems of oil and gas complex development in Euro-Arctic Barents region. According to the framework of the Conception, the organizations demand that new oil and gas fields investigation on the Shelf of the Barents Sea be forbidden, the Barents Observer reported.

The organisations also signed a recurrence to the Norwegian government and offered to identify oil-free zones in the Barents Sea. They also want the Norwegian government to discuss this offer in spring, 2005.