While much of Europe is pinching pennies to pay its way out of the debt crisis, Norway has been awash with cash and is set to get more. Two major oil finds are revitalizing the country's aging energy sector and promise to buoy it through the downturn looming over the global economy.
Although headlines this summer have been predicting economic gloom - a flareup in Europe's debt problems, falling bank stocks, another recession in the United States - Norway has weathered the bad news.
In fact, one of its main financial concerns is how to keep its money from overheating the economy.
"In Norway, we live in a big bubble, independent of what happens in the rest of the world," said Beniamin Johansen, a personnel consultant in Oslo.
Recognized by the United Nations as the world's best country to live in, the land of breathtaking fjords and majestic mountains has used years of oil income wisely to keep unemployment low, incomes high, education free and health services working. For a decade, however, Norway's North Sea oil production has been sliding as the wells slowly run dry. Companies have increasingly had to explore further north, in harsh Arctic conditions, to get to new reserves.
So this summer's discovery that two North Sea oil fields are substantially bigger than previously thought was welcome. The find, announced in July, potentially raises the country's daily crude output of 1.7 million barrels by as much as 300,000 barrels. That's a bonanza at a time of high oil prices that are likely to increase even more.
Source:www.sfgate.com
Although headlines this summer have been predicting economic gloom - a flareup in Europe's debt problems, falling bank stocks, another recession in the United States - Norway has weathered the bad news.
In fact, one of its main financial concerns is how to keep its money from overheating the economy.
"In Norway, we live in a big bubble, independent of what happens in the rest of the world," said Beniamin Johansen, a personnel consultant in Oslo.
Recognized by the United Nations as the world's best country to live in, the land of breathtaking fjords and majestic mountains has used years of oil income wisely to keep unemployment low, incomes high, education free and health services working. For a decade, however, Norway's North Sea oil production has been sliding as the wells slowly run dry. Companies have increasingly had to explore further north, in harsh Arctic conditions, to get to new reserves.
So this summer's discovery that two North Sea oil fields are substantially bigger than previously thought was welcome. The find, announced in July, potentially raises the country's daily crude output of 1.7 million barrels by as much as 300,000 barrels. That's a bonanza at a time of high oil prices that are likely to increase even more.
Source:www.sfgate.com
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