ABSTRACT

In Norway, energy policy in the petroleum sector has separated the granting of concessions, which is the task of the government, from the sale of petroleum, which is deemed an entirely commercial activity. Thus, even if the state held a strong hand in energy policy, it left the sale and marketing of petroleum to market actors, notably to Statoil, the fully state-owned oil company. Although marketing and sale of petroleum is a strictly commercial activity, this does not mean that free market rules reign in the domestic organization of the petroleum sector. Statoil has a privileged place, and this has been an issue in the negotiations for EU membership on the part of Norway. In its negotiations with the European Union for membership, Norway was keen to ensure that EU energy policy does not deal with the concession policy and the pace of exploration. In its accession agreement, Norway got a special guarantee that the European Union would not extend its energy policy to a common policy on the management of natural resources, which was to remain firmly in the hands of national governments (Matlary 1996:228).