Walter Sognnes, a geophysicist-turned-serial energy entrepreneur, has been the driving corporate force behind Norway’s bid to translate its offshore-oil pedigree into a new deep-sea-mining industry. After three decades spent finding hydrocarbons beneath the North Sea, he pivoted to seafloor metals, arguing that “Norway’s subsea engineering DNA gives us a head start in the minerals the energy transition needs.”

Born in 1966, Sognnes earned a Cand.Scient. in geophysics at the University of Bergen and spent the 1990s running seismic projects for PGS and other contractors. He first made his mark in 2002, co-founding Revus Energy, which grew from a Stavanger start-up into an Oslo-listed producer before its 2008 sale to Wintershall. In 2012 he repeated the formula with Spike Exploration, a lean exploration vehicle later folded into Point Resources.

In 2019 Sognnes teamed up with subsea-equipment veteran Hans Olav Hide and former FMC Technologies executive Tore Halvorsen to launch Loke Marine Minerals. Within two years he had secured cornerstone investments from TechnipFMC, Wilh. Wilhelmsen and NorSea—NOK 85 million of a NOK 115 million private placement—while touting Norway’s safety culture as the template for “the world’s most ambitious environmental plan in mining.”

Sognnes accelerated Loke’s global reach in March 2023, purchasing UK Seabed Resources (UKSR) from Lockheed Martin. The deal delivered two exploration contracts in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and a 19.9 % stake in Ocean Mineral Singapore; Sognnes told Reuters the company would invest about USD 100 million and target first production by 2030.

Raising that capital proved challenging. On 3 April 2025 Loke filed for bankruptcy in Bergen after a failed funding round, leaving the fate of its Pacific licences in doubt and prompting the U.K. government to seek new operators. Environmental groups hailed the collapse as proof that the economics of deep-sea mining remain shaky, while industry insiders framed it as a financing — not a technical — setback.

Even in bankruptcy, Walter Sognnes has reshaped Norway’s conversation about seabed minerals. By fusing oil-patch know-how with a narrative of strategic mineral security, he inspired a wave of Nordic start-ups and helped push Oslo to open parts of its Arctic shelf to exploration.