I think the magic ingredients (aside from being lucky with natural resources in the first place) are egalitarian society, high level of trust, very low level of corruption, a functioning democratic government and highly skilled fund managers.
Further reading: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feabd...
Read the story of Farouk al-Kasim a few months ago, fascinating. It does seem like a stroke of luck that the right people were there in the beginning. His nationality is both ironic and sad considering where Iraq is today
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/08/26/139972557/the-frid...
"Public resources being invested sensibly! Horrifying! You can tell that this is an awful idea by looking at how miserable the people of Norway are, and how badly their businesses are doing.
You should liberate yourselves by giving all of it to private interests. That's the definition of freedom!" /end sarcasm
Different definitions. The current American political ones aren't universal by any means.