Norsk Oljemuseum and More Stavanger Wandering
The Lysefjord cruise I was on this morning did not return to the dock until a few minutes before 1:30 in the afternoon. To say I was a touch peckish by that point is akin to saying the surface of the sun is a tad warm. I made a beeline to a restaurant.
To be honest, I didn’t see any bees, so I’m not sure it was a true beeline. Suffice it to say I made a Joel-line. The point is, by the time I finished lunch I didn’t have a lot of time to do stuff in the afternoon.
I decided to start with the number-one-rated attraction in Stavanger, Norsk Oljemuseum. I also had some time after that to do a little more wandering around Stavanger.
Norsk Oljemuseum
The English translation of “Norsk Oljemuseum” is “Norwegian Oil Museum.” And that’s what it is.
The exhibits start with an explanation of how offshore oil and gas formed starting 200 million years ago. The short version (the text in the museum wasn’t much longer) is that algae grew in abundance in the ocean, absorbing solar energy to power its growth. The algae died and settled on the ocean floor. After millions of years, all of that dead algae was compressed by layers of sand and clay. As a result of decay and these processes, dead algae eventually became oil and gas.
Here’s an interesting fact. All of Norway’s oil and gas production is offshore, in the North Sea. The Norwegian oil industry doesn’t have to pump its oil up. The oil and gas are under such pressure that once they drill down, the oil and gas naturally gushes up through the well pipe. However, when the oil wells become somewhat depleted, reducing that pressure, the oil companies pump gas down to force the oil up to the surface.
And here’s some interesting trivia. One of the gas fields in the North Sea is the Frigg field. (That’s its name. It’s not an abbreviated epithet hurled by people opposed to the extraction and use of hydrocarbons. Such as, “That friggin field.”) When discovered, it was the largest offshore gas field in the world. The Frigg field straddles the territorial waters of Norway and the U.K. Both countries had a platform beside the border. The two platforms were linked by a bridge. As a result, it was possible to cross from Norway to the U.K. by bridge, but only if you worked on or had other business on one of the platforms.
The Frigg field has since been abandoned.
The rest of the Norsk Oljemuseum tells the story of the start of the Norwegian oil and gas industry with the discovery of an enormous offshore oil deposit in the North Sea and the subsequent development of the Norwegian oil industry.
There’s also information in Norsk Oljemuseum on the process of extracting offshore oil.
There are considerable details on how Norway uses the revenue from oil and gas development. Early on, the country decided that most of the benefit would go to the people of Norway, not primarily the oil companies. It achieves this through considerable direct and indirect taxes on oil and gas production.
The country also gets profits from its state oil company, Equinor. Equinor used to be called Statoil and most of the text in Norsk Oljemuseum still calls it Statoil, so that’s what I’ll call it here.
Most oil and gas production in Norway is done by private companies, but Statoil takes a partnership stake in the oil fields.
It used to be that Statoil got a majority stake by government fiat. But that, along with some other stipulations that benefited Norwegians and Norwegian companies, ended with the enactment of the European Economic Agreement in 1994. However, Statoil, now Equinor continues to bring in considerable revenues for Norwegians and it’s expanding its business outside of Norway.
Because of all of the oil and gas money that came into, and continues to come into the government of Norway, Norway has one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. As was the original mandate it uses that fund to benefit Norwegians through the provision of social services such as education, healthcare, sick pay, and pensions.
The government has adopted a policy of not spending more than four percent of that fund per year. That way, it will continue to provide value to the people of Norway long after the oil and gas stop flowing.
There’s a significant section in Norsk Oljemuseum on a Norwegian oil production disaster, the 1980 capsizing of the Alexander L. Kielland, a semi-submersible drilling rig. There were 123 lives lost in that disaster.
Much of Norsk Oljemuseum’s displays are text panels, in Norwegian and English. But there are also models of oil rigs and oil ships, as well as some real components used in oil and gas production, such as drill bits and other parts. The museum also displays a “wasp suit,” a one-man submarine. You’ll know why it’s called a wasp suit when you see the picture of it here.
At the end of the route through the exhibits, there’s a small theatre. I don’t know how often Norsk Oljemuseum changes the films, but they’re now playing a 15-minute film every 20 minutes.
The film is titled “Oil Kid.” It tells the story of the oil industry, its dangers, and its effects (good and bad) on the culture, economy, and oil worker families in Norway. It is told through the eyes of a man (I assume fictional) who was born the year oil was discovered in Norway’s territorial waters, 1969.
The man’s father had been an oil worker and the father and son had a falling out, probably over that, but the son admits to not being sure why he rebelled. At the end of the film, there’s a touching reunion between father and son. Yes, all of that was portrayed in just 15 minutes.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy an oil museum much, but I found it engaging.
What about…
Global Warming
When one thinks of the oil and gas industry, one’s mind quickly turns to global warming. (Although, when it comes to the more radical conspiracy theorists of the far right, what comes to their minds upon the mention of “global warming” is often “hoax.” but never mind that.)
Norsk Oljemuseum does not ignore global warming. There are brief mentions of it throughout the museum. And there’s one whole room that focuses on it. That room provides information on the science of global warming, its effects, Norway’s commitment to mitigate it, and possible actions Norway might take. There’s mention that there is debate (only debate, mind you) on whether Norway should stop future exploration and possibly even current production.
There’s also a panel on what individuals can do to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the suggestions will affect the oil industry if enough people adopt them. One recommendation is to fly less. That made me feel a tad guilty. After all, I was only able to read it because I flew from Canada to Norway, and I’ve been doing a lot more overseas travel since I retired.
It also recommends buying an electric car (see the next only vaguely related aside) and walking or taking the bus more frequently. All of those would reduce the consumption of oil products.
But most of the suggestions it offers will cost the oil and gas industry next to nothing. For example, it suggests eating less red meat because cattle farming produces more greenhouse gases than the production of vegetable, chicken and fish products. Another suggestion is to keep using stuff longer rather than buying new stuff and repairing and reusing existing stuff.
Another suggestion is to conserve electricity because, although most of Norway’s electricity comes from clean energy sources, if Norwegians use less of it, Norway will be able to export more of its clean electricity, possibly displacing coal-fired power plants. Note: coal; not other fossil fuels. How valiant of the oil industry to suggest that.
Aside
Electric Cars
The mention of electric cars reminded me of something I meant to mention in one of the posts I published from Kristiansand, Norway, but forgot. I haven’t done a careful count either here or at home, but I’m pretty sure there are far more electric cars on the road here than back home in Toronto, particularly in Kristiansand. I’m fairly certain it’s still by far a minority here, but a very much larger minority than back home.
As I said, I didn’t do a count, so I don’t know if it was just my impression that the percentage of electric cars was even higher in Kristiansand than it was in Oslo, or now here in Stavanger. But I do believe that, despite being a small city, I saw many more Teslas in Kristiansand than I’ve seen in any one city anywhere I’ve been in the world, even California. And it’s not just Teslas. I saw large numbers of other makes of electric vehicles as well, and many charging stations.
More Stavanger Wandering
After leaving Norsk Oljemuseum, which is several blocks to the east of Stavanger’s harbour, I wandered more deeply in the district to the east of the harbour that I walked through on the afternoon I arrived in Stavanger. The rest of it is just as attractive. The buildings are similar farther back from the harbour, although their wall colours tend to be a little lighter, including several white buildings.
And there’s one nice tree-lined street in that district.
All of the roads are cobblestone. It didn’t occur to me the first day, but the roads are more than wide enough for vehicles, and I didn’t see any physical barriers blocking them, but I didn’t see a single car or truck in that district when I was there. None parked. None driving. So people walked in the middle of the road. Needless to say, that’s very enjoyable for pedestrians.
I then walked over to Gamle Stavanger, the old town, to see if there was more to it than I saw that first day. There is, but not much more. This time, I entered a little closer to the central city, meaning a little farther away from the open sea. There, there’s a small, mainly grass-and-trees park with three sculptures and a small flower bed.
Øvre Strandgate, the street I mentioned yesterday, starts just past that park. Some cross streets have a similar look to Øvre Strandgate for a block or two. And there’s a parallel, but shorter street just up a bit of a hill that also looks similar to Øvre Strandgate.
And I forgot to mention yesterday that, about halfway along Øvre Strandgate there’s a cute little parkette on one side of the street.
When I said that there’s not much more to Gamle Stavanger than I saw the first day, I hope you didn’t interpret that as a put-down. The neighbourhood exudes charm.
So ended my afternoon. And an enjoyable one it was.
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Well, a lovely town, and an interesting, if controversial museum. Hard to think that one of the chief attractions of a town is its oil museum, but it sounds as if it was very informative (learned things I never knew!) and well set up. The guilt over having enjoyed it is offset by admiration of the conscientiousness of the local car owners, pedestrian street users, and clean energy production. It is just that little issue about supporting the national good on their oil and gas resources… And then for the good people of the oil museum to remind us of the part in the global pickle we are in played by cow farts, well, is a little diversionary. That said, seems like a really nice place and I am glad you have taken us to Stavanger.
Stavanger is indeed a lovely town, at least near the harbour. I haven’t ventured very far past it, but from what I can see sticking up in the distance it looks quite ordinary beyond that. I still have some time here.
Stavanger is the oil capital of Norway, although, apart from the museum, I haven’t seen any evidence of that. Perhaps the oil industry being here is why, just from observation, I’m almost certain that the proportion of electric cars in Kristiansand is higher than here.
Reading about Norway’s offshore oil prompted me to find a map of offshore oil and territorial rights in the North Sea. Fascinating.
Do please share sometime.