It's clear that the Arctic has rich stores of oil and natural gas. In previous videos, I've talked about the efforts going on within Russia, where they're going [inaudible] in producing oil and natural gas. What's happening in the United States with respect to drilling for oil primarily, in the Alaskan North Slope, the Beaufort and Chuck she seas, the controversial issues that have arisen, such as drilling in the Arctic national wildlife preserve. Talked about to what's going on in Canada and potentially in Greenland, the issue being that, in Canada there's not a lot of production going on in the Arctic itself. Most of it's in the Alberta tar sands, which is subarctic, and in Greenland there's no production going on right now, but potentially within Baffin Bay, and that also holds for Greenland. Now, let's turn our attention finally, to oil and natural gas production in Norway. Now, Norway is not in the top 10 producers of oil and natural gas, but production is very much an important part of the economy. There's really oil here, I don't think as much natural gas being produced. All production is offshore, there's none onshore all on offshore, in the North Sea, the Norwegian sea, and even further north in the Barents Sea. Norway, has developed a strategic partnership with Rosneft. Remember that Rosneft is one of the big Russian companies involved in production of oil and natural gas. Now, you've seen this figure before, this table before just showing the leading producers of oil in 2018. I'm just focusing in here are the top four, and the point being is that Norway is not in that top 10, certainly not in the top four, but not even in the top 10, but still, a production is a very key part of the Norwegian economy. Here's this map again from the USGS showing where undiscovered oil is supposed to be. If we look at what's going on in Norway, there's a blue oval layer showing some of these areas where there's a lot of oil. But again, that's all offshore, remember, here's a picture just I am showing it on one of these offshore oil rigs, this is how the oil is produced completely offshore. Now, as I mentioned that there's licenses as production and exploration going on in the North Sea, the Norwegian sea, and the Barents Sea. This figure here is just showing where some of these license areas are in all three of the areas, the point being there's a lot of activity going on. Now, how is this all worked through, how will they produce as, what's the economics of this? There's something called the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. This is a government agency regulating petroleum resources on the Norwegian continental shelf remember it's all offshore. The objectives develop resources optimally, with minimum environmental impact, something like the Alberta tar sands, that is hardly what we would call minimum environmental impact. What Norway's trying to do is be environmentally friendly, but at the same time, get out the oil, and again, remember it's all offshore with oil rigs. The Norwegian petroleum directorate is subordinate to something called the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Now, in terms of going on this, there was a company called Statoil, basically stands for state oil that was doing most of the production. It was renamed as equinor. I don't know why the lack of a capitalization or the e is intentional. I don't know why they didn't capitalize the something beyond me. Any case, what statoil is, is a Norwegian multinational energy company primarily petroleum, and turned out the government of Norway is the largest shareholder, about two-thirds of the shares. The government of Norway is the primary owner, shareholder of equinor, which was Statoil, and the ownership is managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Here's equinor logo, very nice, statoil was a different one. Last time I was up in that area, was still statoil that's was something fairly recent to rename it equinor, I'm sure there's a long story behind this why they changed their name. Now, as I mentioned, is that there's a partnership that has been developed with Rosneft, between Rosneft and equinor, and they agreed to this in 2012. Through this partnership, they expect to extract about 250 million barrels of oil and 23 billion cubic meters of gas in the first stage of development, in this very large oil field which lies in Russia. I'm not going to try and pronounce it because, I'm going to totally batch it I'm sure I will embarrass myself. But in any case, the point being is that Rosneft and equinor are in a strategic partnership with respect to their operations in the Arctic. Now here's the question, what does Norway do with its oil? The answer is, it export most of it. Norway has been very responsible in how it deals with its oil, exports most of it, the money comes in and there's a lot of investment being made in the country because of this. Norway is a wealthy country, and their oil and natural gas, primarily oil, that is, although there working with Rosneft, of course, that's a big money producer for Norway, and they've been very responsible in investing it. Not much is consumed domestically at all, I mean, Norway population wise is a small country. This last bit I'm showing is Norwegian oil production in Norway, and you see it peaked around 2,000, around the year 2,000. It has shown a decline after that, now there's a bit of a rise and a dip again. They passed their peak production from this map, anyhow it looks like that's the case. Now it looks like they're producing maybe around two million barrels a day. On the y-axis, it's showing thousands of barrels a day that is produced, and it's about two million a day. It doesn't even fall in the top 10 of producers, but remember that it's a very important part of Norway's economy. Here's this one final question to end. What do you think about gasoline in Norway? With all the production going all in a small country, you might think it's cheap. Is gasoline expensive or cheap in Norway? The answer is it's very expensive. It's taxed very heavily. I remember once a foolishly taking a taxi from the airport in Oslo to where I was going, and I got to where I was going to some hotel, and suddenly I realized that I just spent over a $100 on a taxi fare, I had no idea. Well, didn't make that mistake again, you try to take public transportation, but yeah, it's very expensive in Norway. Surprising, but that's how it works over in Norway. I hope we know we've learned a little bit more about oil and natural gas production, in Norway with previous videos, what's going on elsewhere in the Arctic? The point here is that there's a lot or production, a lot of exploration going on within the Arctic, because the Arctic is such a resource of oil and natural gas. Thank you.
