Norway's Prime Minister Sees Reduced Reliance on Hydrocarbons

Norway is preparing the transition to an economy based-less on hydrocarbon exports, said Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Sunday.

“We have to prepare Norway for an economy that is less oil income, directly, and less oil activity,” Solberg said to Bloomberg.

“That’s a 20-year perspective, not a four-month perspective. Hopefully in 2014, we’ll see that our unemployment rate still is low and that we get bigger market access for some of our goods in the non-oil part of the economy,” Solberg added. 

Erna Solberg’s won the elections expressing her intention to sell public stake in Statoil and promote changes in the energy market. Experts foresee that the country will pave the way to more competition in the national gas market. This would be part of a broader change of direction in national energy policies.