Norway’s oil capital seeks new image for post-petroleum era

Long considered the oil capital of Norway, the small southwestern town of Stavanger has begun hunting for a new image that will keep the money flowing in even after the oil wells dry up.

“We really have to take advantage of the wealth we have in this town now to give us more legs to stand on going forward. We know the oil isn’t going to last forever,” said Helge Solum Larsen, the deputy head of the Stavanger council for city development.
Stavanger, which has seen its population balloon from around 50,000 people before the black gold started flowing to some 120,000 today, counts Norway’s highest density of workers in the sector.

“Stavanger has gone through an enormous economic development since the oil was first discovered, with a Klondike-like economic expansion,” said Lennart Rosenlund, a sociologist at Stavanger University.

But few expect the fairy-tale to last, and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, which like most of the major oil companies is based in Stavanger, concedes that “challenges are present in the shape of declining oil production, rising costs, fewer and smaller discoveries and poor recruitment.”

AFP