NORWAY has once again REFUSED to bow the EU as red-tape obsessed officials try to gain control over the North Sea oil industry.

Ever since Norway brokered its European Economic Area deal with the EU 22 years ago, the oil industry has been an area of conflict.

Now the EU has again attempted to pressure the Scandinavian country into giving bureaucrats direct influence over the oil and gas industry.

However, Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) has said Brussels has no business meddling in individual nations affairs.

MPE officials said: “The government does not consider the Offshore Directive of EEA relevant.

“This has been conveyed to the EU on several occasions. Norway’s position on this issue remains unchanged.”

Brussels bureaucrats want Norway to introduce EU rules on health, safety and environmental matters relating to the offshore industry, however the oil-rich nation is refusing to bow to the pressure.

Government officials added that Norway has unique expertise in the area, a brilliant safety record and EU meddling is unwanted.

The EU and Norway have been in a tug of war for decades, but the disagreement deepened three years ago when Brussels introduced its own directive called Safety of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations Directive.

It was created after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as the 28-strong bloc feared for accidents in its own waters.

Until the directive was created, all member states had separate health and safety regulations.

Norway has continued to dismiss the Brussels’ attempts to gain control of the country’s oil industry, which supplied more than 30 per cent of EU gas imports and more than 10 per cent of crude oil imports in 2014, as the Government insists its outside of the bloc’s jurisdiction.

Negotiations between the EEA country and Brussels hardened after European Commission Vice-President for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, visited Norway in February this year.

At the time Mr Sefcovic said that Norway and the EU continue to seek out a mutual agreement which would be acceptable for both parties.

However in March a report from the European Parliament stated that the area continues to be a point of conflict.

After a Parliament meeting with the Europe delegation in late April, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien reassured the public that allowing EU control over Norwegian oil industry was out of the question.

He said: “There are a lot of things we can discuss with the EU, and should discuss with the EU, in our common interest.

“There are a lot of things we will have to yield on to achieve things in the bigger picture. The Offshore Safety-directive is not one [of these things].”