Saturday, August 30, 2014

The thousands who build the country – VG

OIL FAIR, LONDON (AP): Luck, wisdom and predictability have made the Norwegian oil adventure so successful. Therefore, it is serious when Jonas Gahr Støre creates uncertainty about Aps oil policy.

The oil show in Stavanger is any doubt convinced of the importance of oil for Norwegian industry. The pumping up oil and gas is only part – equally important are all large and small companies that make everything from valves to booms for new ship designs.

Drawings garden is sunnmøring and has a fierce skepticism central power . He strolling around the fair and muttering “Makers and takers” – those who create and those who take the opposite. He believes that western Norway Norway creates values ​​live on, while the central power user.

But of course it is not quite so. Rather, the former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland always said: Everything is connected to everything. Revenues from oil makes it possible to maintain the welfare state, with the peace of mind it gives citizens. This contributes to more dares to throw himself into new challenges. They fear not to starve if a daring project fails.

The oil has created jobs in Norway – especially along the coast. Technologically advanced – it made such good things that the world wants it, even if it costs a lot. Norwegian industrial borne by the oil. But it does to other areas as well. For example, inventions used in the oil industry in medical contexts. An advanced valve can be just as useful in a vein on an oil platform.



Disaster Labor

Many of the ONS is concerned about Labor is in the process of obtaining a new oil policy. They never doubted Jens Stoltenberg on these issues. But the new party leader, Jonas Gahr Støre, has created unrest. The AUF summer camp, he was vague about what he really thinks about the recovery of oil – and gas resources. He said that a lot of resources must be lying.

Subsequently, the Minister tried to clean up in ambiguities. But he has put a scare in many. In Stavanger ask themselves what still Labor leader really mean.

The support from western voters is a disaster for Labor. Party organization has been poorly taken care of in recent years. The last Labor politicians in Western Norway needed now, was that people got the impression that the party does not care about manufacturing jobs in the district.



fluke

It did not have to be so . Historically, wise and farsighted politicians and bureaucrats a large part of the credit for the Norwegian oil adventure. Many, also from Labor, has done much to secure Norwegian ownership over natural resources.

the United States led the then international law already in 1958 gave each coastal state rights to natural resources in or under the seabed off its coast, the so-called continental shelf. Some years later cut Norway with the Danes and British that border the sea should go in the middle. Fluke was that at this time were not found oil and gas in our areas. There was not much to argue about.

Through the new conventions and agreements, Norway has gotten more and more areas offshore. Norwegian waters is now nearly seven times larger than mainland Norway. There are still large areas where there may be undiscovered oil and gas.



Greed

We can thank stable society stop that oil has come all the Norwegian society. Through changing governments enshrine the principles of Norwegian oil: It should be under national governance. It would be built up Norwegian oil environments, including a separate, state-owned oil company. And most of the proceeds would go to the state.

Still – stories of money wasted and huge budget overruns are many. The money still sits loosely in the oil industry, that we can clearly see here in Stavanger. Part of the reason is paradoxically enough that oil companies pay so much tax; 78 percent of all profits go to the Norwegian state. This means that an extra penny spent is really just 22 cents for the company – the rest of the crown to the matter paid in taxes.

This means that unions can be both greedy and little willingness to change. It costs too little to give in to their demands. They are well accustomed. Top managers are also well accustomed. Statoil’s results are dependent on the oil price. The price can not affect the company. Therefore surprised if the bosses get extra well paid in the form of bonus when oil prices are high, so the company makes more money.



Future

The world will need fossil fuels many decades to come. It made the chief of the International Energy Agency, Maria van der Hoeven, clearly when she was in Winnipeg this week. When the agency estimates that two-thirds of fossil fuels should be left in the ground, it is mainly a question of coal. Norwegian oil and gas is very clean compared.

– The world needs more oil and gas. And Norway is part of the supply countries. We can not do without oil, she told Today’s Market this week.

Norway can not do without oil. But we are dependent on oil wealth is managed sensibly – so that both jobs and prosperity can be secured.

In a large and sensitive industry, with such large values, the industry must plan decades ahead. They are very sensitive to wobbles and obscurity. Norwegian oil industry is simply too severe to allow room for agile political points in the face of AUF. It must be kept a steady rate, so that today’s youth also get a good old age.

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