Norway: Knock-on Effects of E&P
In a recent debate entitled "Fuelling Jobs and Growth with Gas," Alfred Nordgård, Special Adviser International Relations, Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, told the impressive story of how Norway had indeed fuelled its economy via exploration and production of the country's hydrocarbons.
"We provide close to a quarter of the natural gas that is used in Europe, so that's a significant proportion," he remarked.
Of the oil and gas supplier and services industry, which had developed as a result of E&P, he said: "It has become the largest export industry in Norway, after the export of oil and gas. Last year it had turnover of EUR 25 billion, which in the Norwegian context is quite significant. It's an industry that employs around 250,000 people—in a 5 million population, that's quite significant."
He said to achieve this, Norway had established three industry clusters, the most spectacular of which was called the "Subsea Valley," where a silver mining town west of Oslo was turning into a location for military equipment manufacture and aerospace.
"Now, they are developing equipment for subsea production, where they produce gas and oil from subsea installations, which don't require platforms out in the water. So the footprint of the industry is far less," he explained, adding that this had enabled Norway to create the huge oil and gas field Ormen Lange, 150 km from shore. "In the Arctic we have a gas field called 'Snow White'."
Mr. Nordgård explained that the basis for the creation of such subsea technology was a multi-skilled, highly educated workforce. "In the subsea area now three of the four major producers of this equipment due to their technology development in Norway, companies like GE or FMC, comprises the first technology cluster.
"The second technology cluster is shipbuilding, he explained. "What's significant here is that they are building very complex, specialized ships that are used for subsea intervention, for diving, for seismic industry, but also for building vessels that are used for installation of wind farms."
The third cluster built drilling rigs and their associated equipment. One company in this sector, he recalled, had become a world leader in building response equipment and protecting the environment.
"We also see that Rolls-Royce have chosen to have their training center for the maritime arena in Norway, which is considered a demonstration of the strengths of the maritime cluster," he added.
In terms of innovation, Mr. Nordgård cited that Norway was leader in terms of having a large share of its youth studying sciences, and a very large share focused on technology as it was relevant for the oil and gas industry.
He also spoke of his own position in chairing the National Oil and Gas Technology Strategy. "This is sort of a fairly unique meeting place for the oil and gas companies and suppliers, and we've seen companies like Shell, BP, ExxonMobil collaborate in ways that we have not seen in places like the Gulf of Mexico, so this has been a successful way of developing the National Strategy."
One challenge he mentioned was Norway being "on it's own" in terms of not being part of the EU and the organization's climate goals.
He summed up, "On the back of our oil and gas production we have been able to build and industrialize, providing technology for the renewable business but also for industry at large."