[simen]

What Labour actually decided against was not oil exploration, but rather a konsekvensutredning, or an investigation into the possible environmental and social effects of oil extraction in the area. Which is in many ways a more radical position, as they are not even interesting in finding out what possible damage oil production might cause. They're rejecting the preliminary step before oil exploration, which is in turn the preliminary step to actual oil extraction.

Of course the current government never had any plans to conduct any preliminary steps. The two major parties (the Conservatives and the Progress Party) are all for it, but the minor supporting parties (the Liberals and Christian Democrats) are not, and so far they've gotten their will.