Can a single disaster reshape a nation's destiny? Reflecting on the Alexander Kielland oil platform disaster of March 27, 1980, which tragically claimed 133 lives just a day before my birth, I take you through this poignant chapter in Norway's history. This event serves as a sobering backdrop to our exploration of Norway's oil adventure, contrasting Norway's strategic, people-centric investments with the paths taken by other oil-rich nations like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Discover how Norway's approach has cultivated a society defined by welfare, free healthcare, and social stability, emphasizing the crucial lesson of valuing human lives over mere economic gain.
Join me as we confront various challenges facing Norway today, from the flaws in the social security system to ongoing discrimination in the workforce and imperfections in our educational institutions. Despite instances of corruption among politicians, businesspeople, and lawyers, we highlight the role of transparency and strong laws in maintaining societal integrity. We'll debunk the myth that Norwegians thrive purely because of oil wealth, shining a light on the real success story—Norway's smart investments in human capital, social services, healthcare, and education. This episode offers a Northern Perspective on creating a more equitable society, moving beyond the capitalist ideology that hoards wealth among a few to one that ensures widespread prosperity.
Can a single disaster reshape a nation's destiny? Reflecting on the Alexander Kielland oil platform disaster of March 27, 1980, which tragically claimed 133 lives just a day before my birth, I take you through this poignant chapter in Norway's history. This event serves as a sobering backdrop to our exploration of Norway's oil adventure, contrasting Norway's strategic, people-centric investments with the paths taken by other oil-rich nations like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Discover how Norway's approach has cultivated a society defined by welfare, free healthcare, and social stability, emphasizing the crucial lesson of valuing human lives over mere economic gain.
Join me as we confront various challenges facing Norway today, from the flaws in the social security system to ongoing discrimination in the workforce and imperfections in our educational institutions. Despite instances of corruption among politicians, businesspeople, and lawyers, we highlight the role of transparency and strong laws in maintaining societal integrity. We'll debunk the myth that Norwegians thrive purely because of oil wealth, shining a light on the real success story—Norway's smart investments in human capital, social services, healthcare, and education. This episode offers a Northern Perspective on creating a more equitable society, moving beyond the capitalist ideology that hoards wealth among a few to one that ensures widespread prosperity.
I was actually born in the midst of a disaster. I took my first breath when 133 men died. I screamed when other families screamed because they lost their loved ones. I was born 28th of March 1980, the day after a disaster in Norwegian history.
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On the fateful evening of March 27, 1980, more than 200 men were off duty and inside the accommodation area on the Alexander Kjelland oil platform. The weather conditions were bad it was dense fog, heavy rain, wind gusts of up to 40 knots and waves reaching 12 meters or 39 feet high. Just after being winched away from the EDA production platform, those on board felt suddenly a sharp crack followed by trembling. The rig healed over 30 degrees but then stabilized. Unfortunately, five of the six anchor cables had broken, leaving only one cable preventing the rig from capsizing. At 1853, that evening, the remaining anchor cable snapped and the Alexander Kellen capsized completely Tragically, 130 men were in the mess hall and cinema when the capsizing occurred.
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The platform had a lot of lifeboats and four lifeboats were launched, but only one managed to release from the lowering cables. A fifth lifeboat came adrift and surfaced upside down. Its occupants righted in and rescued 19 men from the water. Two of the platform rafts detached and three men were rescued from them. Additionally, two 12-man rafts thrown from the nearby Eda platform saved 13 survivors. Seven men were taken from the sea by supply boats and seven swam to the Eda platform, but unfortunately, no one was rescued by the standby vessel Silver Pit, which took an hour to reach the scene.
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The tragic accident resulted in the loss of 133 lives, making it the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since World War II. It remains a somber chapter in Norway's maritime history A somber chapter in Norway's maritime history, and the heartbreaking events serves a reminder of the risks faced by offshore workers and the importance of safety measurements in the time and time again and me, being born just after the disaster has also been like a part of my story as a person, you know, and since I am a storyteller, maybe I make more out of it than other people would do I think this is a stark reminder of men giving their lives away so other people can have a better life, so generation coming after that will get free healthcare for all, you know, better schools, better social welfare, better social welfare, because the Norwegian oil adventure actually raised us up from poverty and we owe those men a great thank you for that. The song in the background was played by the talented Taryn Harbridge. She is having her own Patreon channel and you can visit her there there and she also has a YouTube channel, tarin Hartbridge.
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Now I'm going to this new episode and it's about the Norwegian oil adventure. The historical context is quite interesting because in the midst of the 1900 century, norway was primarily an agrarian society with limited because in the midst of the 1900 century, norway was primarily an agrarian society with limited industrialization and it was a country with a lot of poverty, emigration and dependency on fishing and agriculture. And the turning point came late in the 1960s, and that was the time oil was discovered in the North Sea. The Ekofisk field found on the Norweysk coast marked the beginning of the Norwegian oil adventure and suddenly Norway had waste offshore oil reserves that would change its destiny forever, and this is something that are remarkable and people talk about this other parts of the country. I have a lot of conversations with other people about Norway and the oil industry and the Swedes often refers to it because the Norwegian economy tends to be we talk about the Norwegian oil adventure.
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We were lucky, who find oil, we won the lottery and this is why we are rich today. That is totally wrong. Well, we were lucky. We found the oil, and it was like winning the lottery. It was like finding a treasure in the bottom of the sea that actually created a lot of money for the people in Norway, but it was not luck in the matter of giving all the people of Norway wealth. That was about investing the money in the people, because that is what we do in Norway we invest in people. So now I'm going to tell you the story behind the Norwegian oil adventure, and not just about us finding oil, but also using the situation to invest in people, to invest in education, to invest in welfare, to Invest in social care for all, free healthcare. You know, that is the Norwegian oil adventure, and now I'm going to storytell this to you. Okay, so we found oil. So what? You know?
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A lot of countries find oil, and they are not necessarily rich. So you know Venezuela has oil. So you know Venezuela has oil. Venezuela faces economic, political turmoil, mismanagement, corruption and declining production, and you know they have oil. And Saudi Arabia has oil. And you know they have actually built a modern economy, infrastructure and social services. They have actually built a modern economy, infrastructure and social services, but still they have a lot of challenges in their country with both poverty and social control, with women and so on. So it's not the same story and the same oil adventure like the Norwegian winter, like the Norwegian. And Iran has a lot of oil and they faces economic sanctions, political instability and limited diversification, and there's a lot of problems with democracy in this country, etc. And Russia has a lot of oil and, yeah, russia is in a war and it faces a lot of geopolitical tensions and struggles with diversification.
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I can name a lot of other states that actually has oil, but those three you know they have actually found more oil than Norway. If you compare those countries to Norwegian society, the Norwegian society is better for the people of Norway because we give all the people a right to welfare and it's a stable country with peace and democracy, so it's better to live in this country than in the other countries. But we actually have less oil than them and because Venezuela has 303.8 billion barrels of oil reserves and Saudi Arabia has 298 billion billion and Iran 157 billion. And Norway actually doesn't have so much. We only have 5.1 billion barrels of oil reserves and we talk a lot about the life after oil. What happens when we stop earning money on oil and we refer it like oh, the new oil, what will be the new oil? What kind of business will we invest in, you know? So it's not about oil, it's about giving the money to the people. It's about giving the money to the people and invest in people. And we have not taken copyright on this. So please copy, please make this in your country as well. Give the money to the people. Bye.
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The discovery of gas in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 1959, sparked interest in the petroleum potential of the North Sea. Norway's geological expertise has initially been negative about oil and gas deposits, but the enthusiasm grew after the Groningen discovery. And here are some key milestones in Norway's oil adventure. In 1962, philips Petroleum applied for exploration rights in the North Sea, focusing on Norwegian territory. The Norwegian authorities rejected exclusive rights and opened the area for multiple companies Hooray. In 1963, norway proclaimed sovereignty over the NCS, asserting that the state owned natural resources. Hooray, companies were allowed to conduct preparatory exploration, including seismic surveys. So yeah, we own this, we, the people. 1965, agreements were reached with Denmark and Great Britain on dividing the continental shelf, based on the median line principle.
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In 1969, the game changer came with the discovery of the echo fist field. The game changer came with the discovery of the ecofisk field. On Christmas Eve, philips informed Norway and Norwegian authorities about ecofisk, one of the largest offshore oil fields ever found. Production became June 15, 1971. In the 1970s, exploration focused on the areas south of the 62nd. Parallel Foreign companies played a significant role in developing Norway's first oil and gas field Statoil, now Equinor, was established in 1972 with the principle of 50% state participation in each production license.
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So the Norwegian oil adventure transformed the nation's economy, creating wealth and establishing Norway as a major player in the global energy market. And now I'm going to tell you how we organized it all. What we did was point one sovereign wealth fund, the government pension fund global. Norway established the government pension fund global in 1990 to manage its old oil revenues. It's one of the largest sovereign wealth funds globally and the surplus oil revenue in international financial markets has one primary goal and it's to ensure future generations to benefit from the oil bill. Not the rich people, not the capitalists, but the people, the future generations that are not even born, my grandchildren, you know. The fund calls a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and real estate. It avoids investing too heavily in any single sector or country. By doing so, norway avoids the resource curse. By doing so, norway avoids the resource curse where excessive reliance on natural resources can harm an economy.
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Transparency and accountability. Norway's oil wealth management is transparent. The funds, performance holdings and investment decisions are publicly available. The government is accountable to the Norwegian people for how the oil well is used, and we discuss it a lot, we argue a lot about it and the political parties? They never agree on it. But we all agree that we should not use too much.
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Investing in education and infrastructure. Norway allocates a portion of oil revenue to education, healthcare and infrastructure development. Investment in education and research endure a skilled workforce and innovation. And we and we also have a balance between economic growth and currency appreciation. Norway managed the appreciation of its currency, the Norwegian kroner, due to oil exports. A strong currency can harm other sectors like manufacturing and tourism. To balance this, norway invests abroad through the gpsg.
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So um in summary, norway's approach combines responsible resources management, fiscal discipline and long-term perspective. It serves, as I think, and it's not exactly, it's not about oil in general. It important part is give the wealth to the people, invest in people and make the nation as a whole grow together. That is the Norwegian way. It's not about the oil, it's about the system, and the system has a lot of strong points. It's about long-term wishing and planning. It's about the wealth funds. It's about the transparency and the balancing economic sectors, avoiding corruption and mismanagement, and learn from other mistakes, learn from the countries that don't invest in people. So, um, yeah, in summary, this story is about responsible resource management. Yeah, that's all that's what I mean.
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So why do I care so much about this subject and why do I have to make a message of it? Why do I irritate you by telling you all this? Well, it really engaged me because I have seen poverty. I have seen poverty with my own eyes and I have seen what it does to people. I have seen that nice people get corrupt and that corruption is tearing a country apart, and I don't think that people in the world deserve to live in poverty. I don't think the Norwegian people deserve it, and I don't think the people of any other country deserve it. I don't consider my country to be a lucky country or the people living there to be lucky. I don't consider us to be like winning the lottery we often say, we often refer to. Oh, to get to be born in Norway, it's like winning the lottery. Well, I don't think of it like that. As I have told you in other podcast episodes, it's actually.
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We do have problems in Norway too, and we do having a lot of discussions, political discussions in our countries, in what we can do better and how we can provide people's life in a better way than we do. And, yeah, it's always things that are changeable. Our, you know, social security system maybe it's not super perfect and you know, and we have a lot of problems with discrimination in the workforce, as I already have told you, the Norwegian ableism, and, yeah, you know, our school systems are not always correct and 100% perfect. And we also do bad things. In our country, you know, we also have corruption. We also have corrupt politicians, corrupt business people, corrupt lawyers and so on. We also have these problems, but the transparency and the laws in this country are making it harder when corruption exists, and so it's easier to get rid of it when you have laws and rules and restrictions to it.
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So, yeah, so I think it's kind of not right to say that we found oil and we were lucky and that's why we are living a good life. Now, I know both Norwegians and people outside Norway describe our country like that, but I hope you got the impression of what I mean about it in this podcast episode. Why I won't say the same. I won't use the same words like we were lucky and being born in Norway is like winning in the lottery, because I don't think that is the right description. I think the right description is we were lucky when we found the oil, but we were smart when we invested in people.
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And if it hadn't been for the investment in people, in social services, in healthcare for all, in school systems, etc. The list is long If it hadn't been for that, all the money would be taken away by a few companies and a few people would get rich, and I don't agree on that way of controlling a society. I don't agree in that capitalist ideology. I believe in investment in people. I believe in believing people. The human capital is the most important capital of all. So thank you for taking your time to listening to a Norwegian lady bringing you the Northern Perspective.
