Going into 2013, CEOs of all stripes face a challenging energy market in which costs are rising, and leading energy providers are just as likely to call North Dakota home as they are Dubai or coastal Norway.

FORBES: 5 Energy Trends That Will Impact Your Business In 2013

"We have already expressed our support, both morally and politically, for the process started by the Irish and we understand fully the worries they feel as they are the same worries we feel in relation to our own coastal areas, " the leader of Norway's parliamentary energy and environment committee, Bror Yngve Rahm, told Reuters.

BBC: Irish start legal action over Sellafield

Trade and industry minister Odd Eriksen, petroleum and energy minister Odd Roger Enoksen and fisheries and coastal affairs minister Helga Pedersen all come from Northern Norway, a region geographically remote and in many ways culturally distinct from the more populous South.

BBC: Arctic landscape