Features

This issue of Dialogue celebrates the 50th anniversary with some stories from the decades which have passed since the oil prospectors arrived in the 1960s.

Norway didn’t become an oil nation because we were lucky.  People often say we got something undeserved, that we’re a humble and unsophisticated folk who’ve stumbled on an oil mountain where we sit and incubate our petroleum wealth.

An American work culture was dominant on the NCS from the start of Norway’s oil adventure until the end of the 1970s. Extending the Working Environment Act (WEA) offshore was an important milestone in making the new industry Norwegian.

Several of the largest field developments on the NCS saw the light of day in the 1980s. The biggest of them all was the veritable troll, which became famed far beyond the country’s borders.

Underwater technology occupies a key place in the conquest of the NCS. Progress in this area really picked up speed in the 1990s, and Norway ranks today as a leading exporter of subsea solutions.

A new phase in Norwegian oil history began in the 2000s, when a number of new companies appeared on the NCS. They brought creativity, innovative thinking and eagerness to explore. But safety requirements remain unchanged – regardless of size.