Norway was already extracting a large volume of gas, transporting it through undersea pipelines to northern Europe, but the government allowed production to be increased. Energy companies made adjustments, increasing gas production by 8% at the expense of oil. Today, Norway is the source of about a third of the gas consumed in Europe.
Energy revenues go into a $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, officially called the World Government Pension Fund. The structure is known to many as an oil fund. It owns an average of 1.5% of the 9,000 listed companies worldwide.
The government can use its expected annual revenue to finance nearly 20% of the state budget. The deal helps protect Norway’s economy, which grew by 3.3% in 2022, from the ups and downs of oil and gas prices.
State-owned Petoro, which controls Norway’s oil holdings, earned about $50 billion in 2022, almost three times more than in 2021, while oil company Equinor posted a record adjusted profit of $75 billion. of dollars.
