Since mid-November, Marte Mjøs Persen has served as Norway's minister of Petroleum and Energy, but now it appears that she is going to switch to a different office already.

Instead, she will take over as minister of Labour and Social Inclusion, while Terje Lien Aalsland will succeed her as minister of Petroleum and Energy, according several Norwegian media including TV 2.

This news is expected to be presented at an extraordinary council meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. CET Monday.

There has been some conjecture as to who would take over as Minister of Labour following Hadia Tajik's resignation last Wednesday. On Sunday, Tajik also withdrew from her role as deputy leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. This comes in the wake of an expose revealing that she was granted tax-free commuter housing from 2006 to 2010 based on a lease she never used.

Persen has also attracted attention while serving as Minister of Oil and Energy, not least after making critical comments on onshore wind farms back in 2020.

"They've been given a nice name, wind farms. The truth is that they're industrial areas, and an industrial area doesn't belong in a vulnerable natural environment," Persen told local media Bergens Tidende in November 2020.

A comment she repeated in May 2021 during a political rally.

Her replacement, Aasland, has been a member of the Norwegian Storting since 2005 and has been a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment at various stages.

In the fall of 2021, he was elected to chair the committee.

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