Norway’s biggest bank says it may reevaluate its involvement in the funding the Dakota Access pipeline after being hit by criticism at home.
DNB said in a release issued earlier this week that it is concerned about how the situation surrounding the oil pipeline has developed. The bank said it will use its position as lender to the project “to encourage a more constructive process to find solutions to the conflict that has arisen.”
DNB said its policy is to only finance projects that meet its requirements with respect to environmental and social conditions. “We have intensified the dialogue with our customers and emphasized that respect for the indigenous people’s rights is an important value for us as a bank,” the bank said.
“If our initiative does not provide us with the necessary comfort, DNB will evaluate its further participation in the financing of the project,” Harald Serck-Hanssen, group executive vice president at DNB, said.
The Dakota Access pipeline would carry oil for 1,900 kilometres across four U.S. states, from North Dakota’s Bakken oil formation to pipelines in Illinois. From there, the oil would go to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Protesters have made a stand near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, calling for the pipeline to be rerouted. They say the pipeline and construction process pose a risk to local water supplies and sacred sites. Over 100 people were arrested in late October when police moved in to evict them from land owned by Energy Transfer Partners, which is building the pipeline.
According to Reuters, Norwegian news outlet Aftenposten has reported that DNB has made loans worth more than $342 million US toward the construction of the pipeline, or almost 10 per cent of the cost of the project.
For its involvement in the North Dakota pipeline, DNB is reported to have been the target of online protests and been threatened with a boycott by some customers.