New York Governor Vetoes Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing, Norse’s Herkimer Unaffected

New York Governor Vetoes Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing, Issues Executive Order Banning Large Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Until July 2011, Norse’s Herkimer Unaffected

Norse Energy Corp. ASA (“NEC” ticker Oslo Stock Exchange, Norway; “NSEEY” ticker U.S. OTC) and its subsidiaries (“Norse Energy” or “the Company”) advise that New York Governor Patterson has vetoed a moratorium bill aimed at suspending hydraulic fracturing of gas reservoirs in New York State until May 15, 2011.  The Governor then proceeded to issue an Executive Order directing the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) not to issue permits for large volume hydraulic fracturing until July 2011.  

“In addition to emphasizing the need for environmentally safe operations, the Governor’s statements in support of his actions also enumerated the tremendous economic benefits to the State that our industry is able to provide, including jobs, economic development and an increasing industrial tax base which will help both state and local government budgets,” commented Norse CEO, Mark Dice.  The DEC has been working diligently to complete permitting rules to address large volume hydraulic fracturing under the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS).  “We would expect that the DEC will have those new SGEIS rules in place so that permits can be issued starting July 1.  Regardless, it is important to remember that these measures do not impact our Herkimer program, because our Herkimer wells do not require hydraulic fracturing,” concluded Dice.   

Norse Energy has total contingent resources of ~4 TCF (~713 MMBOE) at the end of 2009. The Company has a significant land position of 180,000 net acres in New York State. The Company also owns a natural gas marketing business and operates pipeline systems in New York and Pennsylvania for gathering and transmission of natural gas.

For further information, please contact:
Richard Boughrum, Chief Financial Officer
Cell: +1 714 520 1702, Email: rboughrum@norseenergy.com

S. Dennis Holbrook, Executive Vice President

Cell: +1 716 713-2489, Email: dholbrook@norseenergy.com