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A Short History of the Norwegian Oil Industry: From Protected National Champions to Internationally Competitive Multinationals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2015

Helge Ryggvik
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Abstract

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This study explores how Norway, as a latecomer to oil production, was able to develop both effective oil companies and an internationally competitive oil service industry. The article focuses on two rather distinct phases: the protectionist phase, in which a strong focus on local content fostered skilled Norwegian oil companies as well as a national oil service industry, and the phase of liberalization or financialization, where new forms of contact and openness to foreign ownership laid the basis for internationally oriented Norwegian oil companies and oil supply and service firms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 3 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2015 

References

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10 The best known of these were Johan B. Holte and Torvild Aakvaag, director and future director of Norsk Hydro, respectively, and the shipowner Frederick Olsen.

11 Norwegian Oil Directorate, Facts 2010 (Oslo, 2010), 90Google ScholarPubMed. All reserve estimates in brackets are from this publication. One Sm3 of oil is equal to 6.29 barrels.

12 Innstilling fra den forsterkede industrikomite om undersøkelser etter og utvinning av undersjøiske petroleumforekomster på den norske kontinentalsokkel [Recommendations from the amplified industry committee on exploration for and exploitation of petroleum resources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf], Innst- S. [Recommendation to the parliament] no. 294 (1970–71). The committee's recommendations were later to be named Norwegian oil policy's “ten commandments.”

13 Ibid.

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23 Royal decree of 8 Dec. 1972, §54.

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26 Ibid.

27 Sveinung Engeland, “Ingeniørfabrikk på norsk: Oppbygginga av norsk petroleumsrelatert engineeringkompetanse” [The Norwegian engineering factory: The development of petroleum-related engineering skills in Norway] (PhD diss., University of Oslo, 1995).

28 Nerheim, En gassnasjon blir til.

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35 The white paper covering this was presented on April 27, 1984 (no. 73 [1983–1984]).

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37 Enkelte spørsmål I petroleumsbeskatningen [Some questions about taxation of petroleum], white paper no. 41 (1986–1987).

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39 Hanisch and Nerheim, Fra vantro til overmot, 235.

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41 Ibid.

42 Ibid., 182. The advanced industrial saturation diving then being performed on the Norwegian continental shelf relied on strong efforts to promote Norwegian research in diving and subsea activities; the Norwegian Underwater Technology Centre (NUTEC) and the several state-sponsored research programs were important. When Norwegian companies tried to compete with French, American, and to some degree British diving firms in the 1970s, these companies' exclusive access to military-sponsored research was a substantial advantage. During the 1980s, the U.S. marine diving tables had become common knowledge in the entire industry. The problem for divers was that when diving companies made their own versions of these tables they tended to shorten the decompression time, thereby increasing the possibility of “the bends,” or diving sickness.

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