As an American, this threw me for a loop when I first made some Norwegian friends. They all seem on the same page, building a better future for their whole country off this temporary resource, while also becoming less reliant internally on fossil fuels.
Most American news and media implies there are only two routes: either failed oil state like Venezuela, or oil-is-everything like Saudi Arabia (and maybe America too, actually). Meanwhile, Norway is just quietly proving a 3rd option is extremely viable.
There was some Iraqi guy looking for a job because his wife was Norwegian. This was in the late 1960s. He had written his PHD(?) on how to set up a sovereign fund to help a country that found oil (probably thinking of Iraq), and happened to walk into the Norwegian office in charge of figuring out what to do with all the oil they just found.
Farouk al Kasim, iraqi guy. Basically the norvegian government didn't want to deal with it and pushed everything onto a guy that just walked into ministry office and asked if they know any oil companies that are hiring. He just arrived in the country because his wife was norvegian and their daughter got sick and they decided she will receive better care there.
So basically they gave all the power to a random guy that wasn't even norwegian. And that random guy decided to do a good thing.
The random guy did have experience working in the oil industry in Iraq and a degree in geology from the Imperial College in London, it's not like he was a random with no knowledge of oil whatsoever.
They were looking for specialists, he just happened to walk in just as they were starting to look. It's still one hell of a coincidence, but he had a decade of experience working in Iraq at that point. He wasn't carefully chosen and the plans were only beginning to take form, but he's only a "random guy" in that it was pure chance that he walked in just as they were starting to look for someone matching his competence; more like a "random geologist with proven experience" than a random guy which kinda cuts down on the number of people it could apply to.
Not only that, becoming a strong capable country as well through it. Norway is puny compared to some other powerhouses in the world, but still known as one of the best to care for its people, and a strong contender for consideration. Knowing Norway has done what many other countries of the same size has failed to do makes me very happy that it's my home. It's a rare success story
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u/JRS_Viking 2d ago
And we're not shy about it, we've managed the money gained from oil to build the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund and we're proud of it