Norway can boast its largest trade surplus ever, after exports of oil, gas and electricity at high prices last year. Metals and record-high seafood sales also helped, but ongoing if controversial oil and gas sales accounted for most of the wealth still flowing into the country even as the pandemic and climate crisis drag on. […]
Budget battle ends well for leftist SV
November 29, 2021
Norway’s Labour-Center government coalition was finally able late Monday to secure a majority in Parliament for next year’s state budget. After lengthy negotiations with the Socialist Left Party (SV), the pro-oil Labour and Center parties even agreed to cancel Norway’s next round of offshore oil field licensing, in a major concession to SV and climate […]
Gas sales hit new record
November 17, 2021
High prices for oil and gas have sent more offshore revenues flowing into the Norwegian treasury. Never before has Norway earned more money off its oil and gas industry, which climate and environmental activists want to eventually phase out. State statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) reported that the value of Norway’s natural gas exports amounted […]
Støre accused of more ‘blah, blah…’
November 8, 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS: Halfway through the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Norway is still mostly throwing more money at others to cut emissions while literally fueling them at home. The oil-producing country’s new government may even get away with it, once again. In his first international appearance in Glasgow last week as Norway’s prime minister, […]
Norway braced for battle in Glasgow
November 1, 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS: Norway’s new Labour prime minister headed for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that opened on Monday, armed with more Norwegian petrokroner and promises that his oil-producing nation will meet its climate goals. Jonas Gahr Støre and others in the Norwegian delegation know, however, that their credibility is at stake and […]
Equinor CEO keen to promote tax bill
October 27, 2021
Norway’s state oil company Equinor, which reported record high quarterly profits on Wednesday, was quick to boast that it expects to pay NOK 130 billion (USD 15.6 billion) in taxes this year. Equinor CEO Anders Opedal clearly wanted to stress the company’s contribution to the Norwegian economy, at a time when its oil and gas […]
Energy crisis fuels Norway’s currency
October 17, 2021
The Norwegian krone has strengthened markedly in recent weeks, as has the country’s economy in general. It’s a case of the rich getting richer, as the energy crisis boosts the price of Norway’s oil, gas and electricity at the expense of its trading partners. The krone (crown), which rises and falls in line with oil […]
Norway is getting ‘back to normal’
September 23, 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS: Interest rates have started to rise, oil and gas exports have more than doubled and Norway will soon even have a Labour Party-led government again, just as most of the country’s Corona virus-related restrictions are likely to be lifted. Post-pandemic “normalization” is clearly underway. Norway’s central bank confirmed on Thursday that it’s finally, […]
Oil industry expects a new energy crisis
September 20, 2021
Recently soaring electricity rates in Norway and high gasoline prices at the pump are just a taste of what may lay ahead, warn various oil industry players. They have their own vested interests and can profit on such booms, but several meeting in Oslo last week think consumers need to brace for a new energy […]
Oil tax changes shift exploration risk
September 1, 2021
The Conservatives’ Oil Minister Tina Bru and Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner surprised just about everyone Tuesday evening, when they proposed some climate-friendly changes in Norway’s tax system for the oil industry. The changes, if approved by Parliament, will leave the industry facing much more of the financial risks involved in oil and gas exploration […]
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