The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil
By Martin Sandbu
Published: August 29 2009 02:26 | Last updated: August 29 2009 02:26
When he boarded his flight from London to Oslo, Farouk al-Kasim, a young Iraqi geologist, knew his life would never again be the same. Norway was a country about as different as it was possible to imagine from his home, the Iraqi port city of Basra. He had no job to go to, and no idea of how he would make a living in the far north. It was May 1968 and al-Kasim had just resigned from his post at the Iraq Petroleum Company. To do so, he had had to come to the UK, where the consortium of western companies that still controlled most of his countryâs oil production had its headquarters.
For all its uncertainties, al-Kasimâs journey to Norway had a clear purpose: he and his Norwegian wife, Solfrid, had decided that their youngest son, born with cerebral palsy, could only receive the care he needed there. But it meant turning their backs on a world of comforts. Al-Kasimâs successful career had afforded them the prosperous lifestyle of Basraâs upper-middle class. Now they would live with Solfridâs family until he could find work, though he had little hope of finding a job as rewarding as the one he had left behind. He was not aware that oil exploration was under way on the Norwegian continental shelf, and even if he had known, it wouldnât have been much cause for hope: after five years of searching, still no oil had been found.
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The extraction rates al-Kasim forced through significantly boosted oil and gas revenues â and so indirectly, the size of the savings fund. But the culture of pursuing the âlast dropâ brought greater benefits than just money pouring in. It spurred the development of technological expertise that has enabled Norwegian companies to compete with the best in the world. This, then, is a striking case of strong state regulation ultimately benefiting the private sector. âNorway is the only country in the world where the state and the capitalistic entities work together as partners, and the co-operation works, really works,â says al-Kasim. Paradoxically, state involvement makes this easier. âTo put it very simply, you put your wallet where your mouth is ⦠When you take 50 per cent of the risk, and other companies take maybe 15 per cent tops, it is hard for them to say youâre crazy, right?â
Today, al-Kasim is well known and liked within the older generation of Norwayâs oil community (for whom his impromptu visit to the Ministry in May 1968 has entered the folklore). Beyond that limited circle, however, he is virtually unknown. The big newspapers have not profiled him; an internet search reveals little. I first learned of his story by coincidence, when a Norwegian development official mentioned him in an off-hand remark. The government has an ambitious aid programme (now called âOil for Developmentâ) to help poor, oil-rich states manage their natural resources. The official pointed out the irony in this, given that âit was an Iraqi guy who helped us set everything up in the first place. Without him we would just have let the American oil companies decide how to do things.â What a great story, I thought, almost too good to be true. But if it was true, how come so few people in Norway knew about it?
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