(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Before the weekend, the oil market experienced the biggest price increase of 25 years. Oil prices rose to almost 140 dollars a barrel. Although the price is now on its way down again, generally very high oil prices contribute to a marked strengthening of the Norwegian krone. The growing demand in the world market, and that only probably 35 percent of the resources on the Norwegian continental shelf have been produced to date, also offers promises of still great potential for value creation in the oil and gas sector.
The idea that the petroleum industry's strong anchoring in Norwegian social life and politics can inhibit the focus on and development of renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly important.
- In a country where so much has been facilitated for the oil industry, it will be even more difficult for renewable energy to grow than in countries where infrastructure and institutions are not as much adapted to a specific and already existing industry, Espen Moe points out, scientific employee at the Department of Sociology and Social Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). His research has centered on what happens when a form of industry gains great political power.
- The point of the oil industry is that a cross-political Norway saw what opportunities lay here. Then the industry was given good conditions to grow politically powerful and influential. When we talk about building renewable industry today, it seems that we have forgotten that the oil industry did not grow by itself, but that it required significant government effort. And the question then becomes whether we are willing to do something similar again, Moe points out.
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