The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009) | Hacker News Reader

The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil (2009)

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Here is a video, in Arabic, he says he interpreted exploration reports from 13 oil wells.They asked him for a draft on how to handle oil industry. He called for separation between ownership and operation, to treat the Norwegian oil company as a private entity. They did it right when they prepared well. He said his contribution was in establishing a scientific basis for the government role in the oil industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEiqveFm1Yk

Can someone that reads Norwegian verify this? I haven't found a lot of material in English.

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/38scem/norways_89...

It was discussed on reddit.

Was discussed on HN back in '09 as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=794116

I can't verify this particular story, although it sounds true. However, all the general stuff about norwegian policies and ways of thinking are correct.

Interestingly enough, the government involved norwegian philosophers when making plans for all the oil-money that was going to come in. This in turn lead to the oil-fund we have today, where the government can only spend the returns of it, and never dig into the actual fund itself.

Interestingly enough, the government involved norwegian philosophers

It makes me wonder what it'd be like if, as a nation, our upper house of government were replaced with a long-standing group of politically independent philosophers and other "wise people" (here in the UK there is a little of this, as the House of Lords has 26 "Lords Spiritual" who are all Church of England bishops - something more secular but in a similar spirit would also be nice).

The United States supreme court is the closest thing we have.

He was a guest on a chat show here in Norway a couple of months ago. I had never heard of this guy before, and few norwegians have, so its nice he finally gains some credit for his work.

This story is indeed true. The Norwegian Broadcasting Company did a series on oil exploration in Norway and I believe they did credit him for this.

His article on the Norwegian Wikipedia existed already before 2009, although it didn't have many details back then, and still doesn't.

I learned of this story at uni, when I took a course at the institute for petroleum at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

According to Norwegian Wikipedia, he got knighted in 2012.

Beautiful story - truly exceptional man.

I agree. He comments that "but things have mostly come in a fortunate order. It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck." To me this is completely wrong. He had the thought to go to the Ministry and he made the best of a great opportunity.

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