Norway and the UK drilled the same North Sea.
🇳🇴Norway got $2 trillion.
🇬🇧The UK got tax cuts.
Same basin,Same era.... Completely different outcomes.
Norway captured $30 per barrel in government revenue. The UK captured $11.
That gap, compounded over 50 years of production, is the entire difference.
Norway's model was simple: tax heavily (78% marginal rate), take direct equity stakes in fields via the SDFI, own part of Equinor, and put everything surplus into a fund invested abroad.
The Government Pension Fund Global now holds over $2 trillion in assets.
That's $390,000 per Norwegian citizen about 1.5% of all listed equities on earth.
The fiscal rule: only spend the 3% annual real return. Never touch the principal.
The UK started producing earlier, at lower prices, with a lower tax rate (40%) and no saving mechanism.
North Sea revenues flowed straight into the general budget.
Economists estimate the UK missed out on roughly £400 billion compared to a Norwegian style regime.
The windfall largely financed tax cuts in the 1980s rather than a fund.
Where things stand in 2026?
Norway's petroleum sector will generate $63 bn in net cash flow this year alone feeding a fund already large enough to cover 10-15% of the national budget from returns alone.
The UK is a net energy importer.
Since 2021 it has paid countries like Norway more than £100 billion for gas.
One country treated oil as a finite resource to convert into permanent financial wealth.
The other treated it as income.
image source:eia
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Keir Starmer, 2020: "When they made mistakes, I carried the can. I never turn on my staff and you should never turn on your staff."
Olly Robbins has now been sacked.
Morgan McSweeney resigned.
Tim Allan resigned.
Sir Chris Wormald resigned.
Starmer should be the one resigning.
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