Insight from the outside [short about the Norwegian economical situation - why we stand tall... or not]

What caught my interest a few months ago was why Norway”stands tall in an age of international crisis”.

In the late 60s, Philips Petroleum Company Norway, with the help of American/Texan drilling companies discovered our first oil field, called “the Ekofisk field”.

Norway is, or at least was the world’s third largest oil exporter, after Saudi-Arabia and Russia. As if that wasn’t enough, we are also the world’s seventh largest producer of oil. We do have major fields like “Ekofisk”, “Statfjord”, “Oseberg”, and “Troll”. And surely the greatest reservoir is in the north, alongside the Barents Sea.

During the fall 2007, our prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg received a call from the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. Our largest oil company, Statoil Hydro was to be joint venture partners with Russian Gazprom, and to be a part of the Shtokman field, which is the world’s largest known offshore oil field.

In 2002 our oil funding reached the majestic high amount of 609 billion Norwegian Kroner [approx. 87.3 billion US. Dollars based upon the current currency exchange]. Surely one would think it would be more than enough to save us from the economical crisis.

Indeed this happened sixteen years ago, deriving from the promising and wealthy “jappetid” of the 80s. The “jappetid” of the 80s was an ascent in our stock exchange which lasted throughout the 80s, ending up in a total crash in 1987 – leading to an unemployment rate of 5 percent of 1991 and beyond 6.3 percent [132 000 people] in 1992. In December 1992 the government issued a financial aid package leading to an improvement in 1993 and 1994.

So is the oil funding going to help us now? Surely almost every media concern in the country have referred to and compared it to the crash at Wall Street in 1929 claiming it is as bad as it was then, and even that it is amusing for tourists to travel to New York to see frustrated business-people.

Though we are heavily influence by the financial crisis; the Norwegian Krone have had its free fall, ending up with a currency exchange of 1 USD = 6.9 NOK.

This summer, I went to Orlando Florida and experienced the currency exchange as low as 1 USD = 5.1 or even 4.9 NOK. I easily saved at least 60 USD on certain gifts.

In an article of DN [Dagens Næringsliv – “economic life of today” it is described that our, “Oslo stock exchange had a 9.7 percentage fall”. They have already nicknamed it “Red October”. I had hoped that the financial aid package had made up its point, but now the opposition party of Fremskrittspartiet [progress party] is accusing the Arbeiderparti [labor party] of insider trading and specifically forming the financial aid package to one specific bank, the DNB Nor.

Perhaps, the only thing to do is to wait and observe.