6 ms·

The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil

103 points by blasdel 17y ago

einarvollset 17y ago
Immigrants. What a nefarious source of evil to be scorned.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- gaius 17y ago
  They needed a geologist, he needed healthcare for his kids, it's a win/win situation. However Norway has a very low immigration rate.
- miked 17y ago
  I'm married to an immigrant (from China) and I and America are lucky to have her. Plenty of her fellow Chinese immigrant friends as well. On the other hand, since we're on the subject of Middle Eastern immigrants to Norway, here's something from Bruce Bawer, a gay American who moved to Norway to marry his partner: "Here in Oslo, a gay couple who were holding hands in the largely Muslim neighborhood of Grønland were physically assaulted by a man who told them: "This is a Muslim neighborhood." In a follow-up story, Dagbladet interviewed a local man, born in Pakistan but resident in Norway for ten years, who argues that "Grønland is a multicultural environment where there are many people who don't like homosexuals, so they shouldn't hold hands." He says such things are OK in west Oslo, where there are few Muslims, "but here in Grønland they shouldn't do it. Ideally, it should be forbidden to practice homosexuality in this area." http://memo.brucebawer.com/ http://memo.brucebawer.com/ What matters is the value system of those immigrants, and it keeps mattering regardless of how desperate the politically correct are for an external source of self-worth. (I'm not saying that's you. I am saying that it is a great many such people.)
  - delackner 17y ago
    The problem you are describing is a result of ghetto-ization, both self-imposed (people like to live near their "fellows") and externally imposed (lack of a wide range of property values in an area leading naturally to income-segregation, with recent immigrants likely to end up stuck all together). If you solve the problem of income-segregation by somehow generating a city where rich and poor live side by side, then I think you go a long way to tackling the source of ghetto-formation, both for immigrants and the local poor. I have seen several cities where this has been achieved, though I have no idea why it occurs in one area and not another. I have a suspicion that it is tightly related to the density of development. A city with lots of skyscraper apartment blocks (both fancy and simple) can fit so many people in such a small area that even if the rich and poor live in different buildings, the buildings may be so close together that they share the same services (schools, hospitals, restaurants, etc). As a concrete example, I live a short 5 minute bicycle ride from a friend of mine. My 8 story apartment building has about 24 units, all of them relatively modest. My friend lives in a million dollar condo in a building with probably 30-40 units as well. This is in the very heart of the city.
- numair 17y ago
  There's a massive difference between the emigration of a very smart, talented person who is eager to assimilate and contribute to society, and immigration involving large numbers of people who are unskilled and have no intention of becoming part of mainstream society in your country. (And I say this as an immigrant)
  - michael_dorfman 17y ago
    I'm also an immigrant (to Norway, actually), and I can tell you that it's quite difficult in practice to tell the difference-- it's not nearly as "massive" as you think.
    - astine 17y ago
      In Norway anyway. In America the influx of hispanics is quite enormous. Most of them are hard workers and a net boon to our economy I think, but the demographic shift is quite astonishing.
    - numair 17y ago
      I was in Oslo last week - there's large parts of town where it's quite easy to tell the difference. Anyway, this isn't the right forum for this discussion...
      - laut 17y ago
        I read in a Norwegian newspaper that a part of Oslo "Grønland", there was a guy who thought that Norwegians should follow certain muslim norms because it's a muslim neighborhood. This was in response to some people that had been assaulted in the neighborhood.
  - netsp 17y ago
    Intention s irrelevant in the long rung. The only reason European politicians talk about it is because you can blame someone for intention.
terpua 17y ago
“Not everything in life has been good – but things have mostly come in a fortunate order. It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck. Like the idea to drop by the Department of Industry … it was just because I am the kind of person who hates waiting.” Most successful people contribute their success to luck - maybe that's why they are so lucky.
- DannoHung 17y ago
  It's a very, "for want of a nail," sort of story. I wonder how many things in life end up being like this. Of course, I suppose you could take the anthropomorphic viewpoint, but I'm not fond of that.
- lsc 17y ago
  Many successful people, when trying to be modest or polite will attribute much of their success to luck. How much of that is modesty? I don't know, but in this case, the guy is clearly being humble and letting the reporter talk him up.
miked 17y ago
Olsen gives al-Kasim much of the credit: he pushed the government to increase extraction rates; insisted that companies try new technologies, such as water injection in chalk reservoirs or horizontal drilling; and threatened to withdraw operating licences from companies that balked. “It is this culture, a culture of ‘squeezing the last drop out’, which he cultivated,” says Olsen. As it stands, this makes no sense. If a cost-benefit analysis showed that investing in technology to increase extraction efficiencies would pay off (given the volatitlty of future prices, etc.), then it should have been done regardless of his urgings. If it didn't, he should never have pushed the idea. In the first case, StatOil would need new managers. In the second, the subject of the story would be wrong. You'd think that the editors of The Financial Times would have pursued that issue in a bit more depth.
- Luc 17y ago
  What is good for Norway is not necessarily good for the oil companies, which have opportunities elsewhere.
- furyg3 17y ago
  Pay off now, or pay off later? The incentive structure for a CEO or other executive at a large multi-national oil firm is likely such that he/she would much rather have a lot of oil drilled in the short-term, rather than a smaller ammount of oil in the short-term and a larger total ammount over the long-term. The same goes for the board members and investors. "Long-term" here is decades, possibly generations, not next quarter. That means that a large chunk of the profits may be realized well after you're retired (or dead), which is not so great for your bonus structure, promotion schedule, or the ROI timeframes that most investors are concerned with (but fantastic for a nation-state). Furthermore contract structures over that kind of timeframe become a bit unpredictable, especially contracts with a sovreign nation, so better to get what you can now and get out. This kind of long-term thinking is where corporations fall short. Even if it's the best interests of the 'corporation' to invest in the long term (which clearly ended up being the case here), it's not in the best interests of the individuals working there. Very few institutions are capable of that mode of operation (nations, monarchies/family dynasties).
bjelkeman-again 17y ago
From the article: "It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck. Like the idea to drop by the Department of Industry … it was just because I am the kind of person who hates waiting.” IMHO people often attribute to luck what is in fact created by themselves. On another note, Norway's oil production is now in sharp decline: http://www.norway.org/NR/rdonlyres/3AE52C92-D215-419D-8131-9A5A13FB1ACA/49868/productionncs1.gif http://www.norway.org/NR/rdonlyres/3AE52C92-D215-419D-8131-9... http://aleklett.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/a-decline-rate-study-of-norwegian-oil-production/ http://aleklett.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/a-decline-rate-stud...
fhars 17y ago
All I get from that link is a page not found error. Has the article been pulled, or have ft.com tried and failed to provide a mobile version of their site? Or are they just filtering access to that page from norway where the servers serving opera mini seem to be located, judging from the mislocalized adsense stuff google tends to show me?
jakewolf 17y ago
I love people who fearlessly operate like this: "After the Ekofisk find, he had to train new recruits. “I, of course, accepted that I am teaching people so that they can make my existence unnecessary … What choice did I have? I had only one hope, and that is that through my contribution, I would become indispensable, which I did.”"
wglb 17y ago
Great story, particularly in regard to the balance required to make the whole thing work, and to push the oil companies to innovate. It also brings to mind the essay "There are no Mom and Pop Oil Companies in Norway": http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/b3b24fb7512f220f http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/b3b24fb751...

103 points by blasdel 17y ago

einarvollset 17y ago

Immigrants. What a nefarious source of evil to be scorned.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
gaius 17y ago
They needed a geologist, he needed healthcare for his kids, it's a win/win situation. However Norway has a very low immigration rate.
miked 17y ago
I'm married to an immigrant (from China) and I and America are lucky to have her. Plenty of her fellow Chinese immigrant friends as well. On the other hand, since we're on the subject of Middle Eastern immigrants to Norway, here's something from Bruce Bawer, a gay American who moved to Norway to marry his partner: "Here in Oslo, a gay couple who were holding hands in the largely Muslim neighborhood of Grønland were physically assaulted by a man who told them: "This is a Muslim neighborhood." In a follow-up story, Dagbladet interviewed a local man, born in Pakistan but resident in Norway for ten years, who argues that "Grønland is a multicultural environment where there are many people who don't like homosexuals, so they shouldn't hold hands." He says such things are OK in west Oslo, where there are few Muslims, "but here in Grønland they shouldn't do it. Ideally, it should be forbidden to practice homosexuality in this area." http://memo.brucebawer.com/ http://memo.brucebawer.com/ What matters is the value system of those immigrants, and it keeps mattering regardless of how desperate the politically correct are for an external source of self-worth. (I'm not saying that's you. I am saying that it is a great many such people.)
- delackner 17y ago
  The problem you are describing is a result of ghetto-ization, both self-imposed (people like to live near their "fellows") and externally imposed (lack of a wide range of property values in an area leading naturally to income-segregation, with recent immigrants likely to end up stuck all together). If you solve the problem of income-segregation by somehow generating a city where rich and poor live side by side, then I think you go a long way to tackling the source of ghetto-formation, both for immigrants and the local poor. I have seen several cities where this has been achieved, though I have no idea why it occurs in one area and not another. I have a suspicion that it is tightly related to the density of development. A city with lots of skyscraper apartment blocks (both fancy and simple) can fit so many people in such a small area that even if the rich and poor live in different buildings, the buildings may be so close together that they share the same services (schools, hospitals, restaurants, etc). As a concrete example, I live a short 5 minute bicycle ride from a friend of mine. My 8 story apartment building has about 24 units, all of them relatively modest. My friend lives in a million dollar condo in a building with probably 30-40 units as well. This is in the very heart of the city.
numair 17y ago
There's a massive difference between the emigration of a very smart, talented person who is eager to assimilate and contribute to society, and immigration involving large numbers of people who are unskilled and have no intention of becoming part of mainstream society in your country. (And I say this as an immigrant)
- michael_dorfman 17y ago
  I'm also an immigrant (to Norway, actually), and I can tell you that it's quite difficult in practice to tell the difference-- it's not nearly as "massive" as you think.
  - astine 17y ago
    In Norway anyway. In America the influx of hispanics is quite enormous. Most of them are hard workers and a net boon to our economy I think, but the demographic shift is quite astonishing.
  - numair 17y ago
    I was in Oslo last week - there's large parts of town where it's quite easy to tell the difference. Anyway, this isn't the right forum for this discussion...
    - laut 17y ago
      I read in a Norwegian newspaper that a part of Oslo "Grønland", there was a guy who thought that Norwegians should follow certain muslim norms because it's a muslim neighborhood. This was in response to some people that had been assaulted in the neighborhood.
- netsp 17y ago
  Intention s irrelevant in the long rung. The only reason European politicians talk about it is because you can blame someone for intention.

terpua 17y ago

“Not everything in life has been good – but things have mostly come in a fortunate order. It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck. Like the idea to drop by the Department of Industry … it was just because I am the kind of person who hates waiting.” Most successful people contribute their success to luck - maybe that's why they are so lucky.

DannoHung 17y ago
It's a very, "for want of a nail," sort of story. I wonder how many things in life end up being like this. Of course, I suppose you could take the anthropomorphic viewpoint, but I'm not fond of that.
lsc 17y ago
Many successful people, when trying to be modest or polite will attribute much of their success to luck. How much of that is modesty? I don't know, but in this case, the guy is clearly being humble and letting the reporter talk him up.

miked 17y ago

Olsen gives al-Kasim much of the credit: he pushed the government to increase extraction rates; insisted that companies try new technologies, such as water injection in chalk reservoirs or horizontal drilling; and threatened to withdraw operating licences from companies that balked. “It is this culture, a culture of ‘squeezing the last drop out’, which he cultivated,” says Olsen. As it stands, this makes no sense. If a cost-benefit analysis showed that investing in technology to increase extraction efficiencies would pay off (given the volatitlty of future prices, etc.), then it should have been done regardless of his urgings. If it didn't, he should never have pushed the idea. In the first case, StatOil would need new managers. In the second, the subject of the story would be wrong. You'd think that the editors of The Financial Times would have pursued that issue in a bit more depth.

Luc 17y ago
What is good for Norway is not necessarily good for the oil companies, which have opportunities elsewhere.
furyg3 17y ago
Pay off now, or pay off later? The incentive structure for a CEO or other executive at a large multi-national oil firm is likely such that he/she would much rather have a lot of oil drilled in the short-term, rather than a smaller ammount of oil in the short-term and a larger total ammount over the long-term. The same goes for the board members and investors. "Long-term" here is decades, possibly generations, not next quarter. That means that a large chunk of the profits may be realized well after you're retired (or dead), which is not so great for your bonus structure, promotion schedule, or the ROI timeframes that most investors are concerned with (but fantastic for a nation-state). Furthermore contract structures over that kind of timeframe become a bit unpredictable, especially contracts with a sovreign nation, so better to get what you can now and get out. This kind of long-term thinking is where corporations fall short. Even if it's the best interests of the 'corporation' to invest in the long term (which clearly ended up being the case here), it's not in the best interests of the individuals working there. Very few institutions are capable of that mode of operation (nations, monarchies/family dynasties).

bjelkeman-again 17y ago

From the article: "It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck. Like the idea to drop by the Department of Industry … it was just because I am the kind of person who hates waiting.” IMHO people often attribute to luck what is in fact created by themselves. On another note, Norway's oil production is now in sharp decline: http://www.norway.org/NR/rdonlyres/3AE52C92-D215-419D-8131-9A5A13FB1ACA/49868/productionncs1.gif http://www.norway.org/NR/rdonlyres/3AE52C92-D215-419D-8131-9... http://aleklett.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/a-decline-rate-study-of-norwegian-oil-production/ http://aleklett.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/a-decline-rate-stud...

fhars 17y ago

All I get from that link is a page not found error. Has the article been pulled, or have ft.com tried and failed to provide a mobile version of their site? Or are they just filtering access to that page from norway where the servers serving opera mini seem to be located, judging from the mislocalized adsense stuff google tends to show me?

jakewolf 17y ago

I love people who fearlessly operate like this: "After the Ekofisk find, he had to train new recruits. “I, of course, accepted that I am teaching people so that they can make my existence unnecessary … What choice did I have? I had only one hope, and that is that through my contribution, I would become indispensable, which I did.”"

wglb 17y ago

Great story, particularly in regard to the balance required to make the whole thing work, and to push the oil companies to innovate. It also brings to mind the essay "There are no Mom and Pop Oil Companies in Norway": http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/b3b24fb7512f220f http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/b3b24fb751...