Norway OKs power line across fjord despite protests

* Controversial project pits energy security vs tourism

* Cost is 1.3 billion crowns; completion seen 2012-2013

By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO, July 2 (Reuters) - Norway approved on Friday the construction of a controversial power line to boost security of supply in the west of the country, in the face of protests from residents who say the line will deface a pristine fjord.

Construction on the 1.3 billion crown ($202 million) power line was approved to ensure security of supply to key North Sea coast oil and gas installations as well as Bergen, the country's second-largest city with 256,000 inhabitants.

"The security of supply of electricity for Bergen is not good enough," Norway's oil and energy minister, Terje Riis-Johansen, told a news conference.

"We can't gamble with it. This is why the Sima-Samnanger line has to be approved."

Some local residents living near where the line will be built said it would tarnish the pristine Hardanger fjord, a 180-km-long (110 miles) inlet clad with high cliffs plunging into the sea and a popular region for tourists.

"It is a pity that (the government) sacrifices the Hardanger landscape at the expense of the oil industry's desire for short-term profit," Klaus Rasmussen, chairman of Protect Hardanger, an organisation that campaigned against the power line, told the website of regional daily Bergens Tidende.

The line will help secure power supply to the Statoil-operated (STL.OL) Mongstad oil refinery, Norway's largest, and the Kollsnes gas processing plant, which processes close to 40 percent of Norway's total gas exports.

In May, Kollsnes suffered an unexpected shutdown after a cut in power supply from the national grid, reducing gas exports to Europe and driving gas prices up. [ID: nLDE6460N8]

National grid operator Statnett said the line was necessary because the two main existing lines supplying power to Bergen and its region are not sufficient to ensure security of supply.

"If one of the two lines were to fall over, 85,000 households would be without electricity," said Statnett spokeswoman Martha Hagerup Nilson.

"We need it to prevent a blackout," she told Reuters. Statnett said it aimed for the line to be completed by 2012-2013.

(Editing by Jane Baird)