Publisert med forbehold om endringer under fremførelsen.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There’s a Norwegian fairytale that tells the story of three young brothers who go to the king, each hoping to win the hand of his daughter, the princess. (I know this fairytale is familiar to all Norwegians here today, but I’m sure they won’t mind me retelling it for the benefit of our guests from abroad.)

On his way to the princess, the youngest brother starts to collect objects he spots on the ground. All of these are seemingly useless things. His two elder brothers laugh at him and tell him to throw away what he’s found.

When they reach the princess, it soon becomes evident that the youngest brother can make good use of all that he’s picked up on the way. The princess is basically a quarrelsome and difficult young lady, but this brother uses his new-found objects to appease and charm her. Like all good fairytales, this one ends happily ever after. The youngest brother gets the princess and half the kingdom.

On this occasion, I’d like to use the fairytale as a message of optimism. Because what does the tale tell us if not how to make best use of previously undiscovered resources? To seek and to find.

So if we turn away from the dry land of this fairytale to what lies so massively and mightily behind us - the ocean - what do we know?

To start with: that the Norwegian continental shelf still has considerable resource potential. We’ve had more than 40 years of production, but over half the recoverable reserves are as yet untapped. This means that the potential is huge. In the North Sea, in the Norwegian Sea and in the Barents Sea.

Secondly: we’re looking. The key to the majority of this industry’s success lies in hydrocarbon exploration. Without exploration activity, no value creation. Exploration leads to discovery; discovery leads to development; and development leads to growth and prosperity on the mainland.

I’m well aware that I mustn’t embellish the story the way they do in fairy tales.  

As we all know, the oil and gas sector is facing trying times. The price of oil is less than half of what it was last summer. We’ve already witnessed a substantial fall in investments, and an even greater drop is expected in the time ahead. Add to this the high level of costs on the continental shelf, and it’s clear that the picture is far from rosy.

The economy is like a complex and delicate timepiece. As soon as one component starts to wear, it affects all the other parts around it. So the situation is indeed serious.

Yet though the sector is going through a sudden slump after years of uninterrupted success, the Norwegian petroleum adventure is far from over. Oil and gas will continue to be vital for many decades to come.

We politicians must always urge caution and pragmatism regarding the scale of prospective extraction and production, and – with it – the

sector’s total contribution to economic growth in the future. There’s an obvious reason for this. We must provide the momentum necessary for the readjustment processes that are bound to come in the years ahead.

All the same, many people are actually talking about the oil and gas sector as though it were already a thing of the past. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a long, long way from the truth.

Expertise, knowledge and technology from this sector are unparalleled in Norway. Our petroleum-related service and supply industry, including underwater operations technology, is a global leader.

One reason for this is that for years and years the Norwegian continental shelf has acted as one big technological laboratory. The results have come in the form of a steady stream of innovative solutions. The Norwegian oil and gas industry has knowhow and expertise that is matched by few others in the world.

When the legacy of the Norwegian oil adventure is passed down to future generations, perhaps this will be one of its most valuable heirlooms. The oil and gas industry has created lasting material wealth in Norway. Enormous wealth. Yet it’s also played a major role in creating a culture.

A culture in which staying one step ahead of the game is absolutely crucial. A culture of excelling in one of the most competitive environments in the world. A culture of pressing oneself and one’s abilities to the limit. A culture of searching for opportunity where others see limitations.

This is the culture that the oil and gas industry has done more than any other to enhance. This is something we must all build on. This is the future.

The spirit of the nascent oil adventure is the spirit of the pioneer. Just like our three brothers in the fairytale, the Norwegian oil adventure started with two almost empty hands. But this equipped those involved with an even greater capacity to take the leap, to look for opportunities and to seize those opportunities.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today’s and yesteryear’s stories belong together.

The Norwegian oil and gas sector was first and foremost created by a group of highly skilled and dedicated people. None more so than the pioneer divers; individuals who consistently lived on – and sadly sometimes over – the edge of what could be considered defensible.

Many of them carried out hard and dangerous work under extreme and uncharted conditions.

For these divers, “just another working day” involved tribulations that would make the rest of us catch our breath:

• getting the diving bell safely down through the hatch in the deck;
• the giddiness as the bell neared the bottom and the pressure rose;
• laying cables at a depth of around a hundred metres;
• fastening and removing wellheads;
• getting back into the bell, stiff with cold, before being winched up from the ocean depths;
• sitting for days and weeks in a decompression chamber.

It’s thanks to the thousands upon thousands of such “normal working days” that Norway was turned into the affluent society it is today.

For many, life turned out fine. For others, the price was high. For some, the strain only told once their work was done. We know today that as a young oil nation we weren’t well enough prepared. We didn’t look after our pioneer divers as well as we should. This is something that the Norwegian authorities have apologized unreservedly for.

Today, safety on the continental shelf is unrecognizable from what it was during the 1970s and 80s. Thankfully the sector has evolved. A time when rapid technological development led to serious accidents has been replaced by one in which the industry’s approach to safety is a model for others to follow.

The conquest of ocean space is set to continue apace. But now we’re better prepared.

Many of the answers to the resource challenges of the future may be found in the oceans. When questions of shipping, fisheries and aquaculture; offshore oil and gas; and resource and environmental management of the seas are discussed in international forums, Norwegian voices are listened to. And in these same sectors, Norwegian industry and knowledge environments have proved that they can be world leaders in the supply of equipment, services and expertise.

This in turn creates challenges that must be solved. Once again, those responsible for meeting these challenges – you, ladies and gentlemen – are being asked to stretch the realms of possibility. But this time in a defensible way.

Machines and technology may be able to help us in much of what we do, but it’s still the knowledge and expertise that reside in the capable hands and creative capacity of a living, breathing human being that will make the difference. Be it in an office or under extreme pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

It was human insight that won our fairytale hero his princess and half the kingdom. And it was human insight that made the conquest of the oceans’ resources possible. Both are stories of human ingenuity, drive and courage.

All that leaves is for me to wish you all a rewarding and enjoyable seminar.

Thank you.