Norway - Industry

Manufacturing, mining, and crude petroleum and gas production accounted for nearly 31% of the GDP in 2000. The most important export industries are oil and gas extraction, metalworking, pulp and paper, chemical products, and processed fish. Products traditionally classified as home market industries (electrical and nonelectrical machinery, casting and foundry products, textiles, paints, varnishes, rubber goods, and furniture) also make an important contribution. Electrochemical and electrometallurgical products—aluminum, ferroalloys, steel, nickel, copper, magnesium, and fertilizers—are based mainly on Norway's low-cost electric power. Without any bauxite reserves of its own, Norway has thus been able to become a leading producer of aluminum. Industrial output is being increasingly diversified.

About half of Norway's industries are situated in the Oslofjord area. Other industrial centers are located around major cities along the coast as far north as Trondheim. Norway had two oil refineries, with a capacity of 310,000 barrels per day in 2002. In the early 2000s, despite an improvement in world oil prices, investment in offshore oil and natural gas remained in decline, in part due to the completion of major projects, such as the Aasgard field. Crude oil and natural gas accounted for 58% of merchandise exports in 2000, and petroleum production rose to 22.7% of GDP in 2000, compared with 14.2% in 1999. Norway's oil and gas reserves are declining; discovered oil reserves were projected to last 18 years in 2000, and natural gas reserves to last 95 years. About 35% of industry is state-owned, including control of the state oil company, Statoil.