The Scandinavian branch of Greenpeace and the Natur og Ungdom organisation had sued the Norwegian government in June 2023, arguing that its approval of drilling at the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil offshore sites hadn't been preceded by proper environmental impact studies.
The Oslo court agreed with the NGOs, and blocked the government from taking any decisions about the projects until a definitive ruling on the validity of the licences.
Energy minister Terje Aasland said in an email that he disagreed with the decision and was considering an appeal.
The ruling by judge Lena Skjold covers only the three fields, and not the others on Norway's continental shelf.
Energy company Equinor has been pumping oil since last October at Breidablikk, which has estimated recuperable reserves of 200 million barrels.
The two others, Tyrving and Yggdrasil, contain total reserves of 675 million barrels, and were due to be operational in 2025 and 2027, respectively.
"This is a full victory for the climate over the Norwegian state," Frode Pleym, the head of Greenpeace Norway, told AFP. "We demand a halt to all development."
Norway is Europe's largest hydrocarbons exporter and defends continued development, citing the jobs it brings and the need to ensure a stable energy supply for the rest of the continent.
In December 2020, in a similar case, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled against Greenpeace and Natur og Ungdom, who had asked for the annulment of ten oil exploration licences attributed in 2016 in the Barents Sea.
The country's highest court ruled in that case that constitutional guarantees of a clean climate could only be invoked if the government failed to uphold its environmental and climate responsibilities, which it said wasn't the case.
This time, the two NGOs claimed that the government's impact studies were either non-existent or very inadequate.
phy/pta/gv/pvh
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