Building a New Foundation
We live in turbulent times. Internationally established economic entities are shaking. The Opec principal, Saudi Arabia, has amassed great debt. We have been used to thinking of the country as inexhaustibly rich, almost as Norway, but it is now in such dire straits it is considering inviting bikini-dressed tourist to its beaches - at least the rich ones.

The US energy giant Enron is ruined, and many individuals with it. We are now seeing the beginning of its aftermath. Investors and future pensioners, who lost their money, and the authorities, have started a fight to find out what really happened, and what the top executives really did. The Enron scandal mirrors in several ways the Kværner fiasco we have witnessed in Norway, although on a much larger scale. But Norwegian authorities are not overly interested in revealing any moral or legal wrongdoing in the miscalculations at the top level of Kværner. Remnants of the company’s engagements in the oil & gas industry are now to be merged with Aker Maritime.

Most authorities concerned have approved the merger between Aker Maritime and Kværner Oil & Gas. No doubt, that is welcome news for all the workers both at Kværner Oil & Gas and at Aker Maritime. Over the last year they have witnessed fighting among their top executives that has kept them constantly in the news, with negative headings. Endless theories about where their workplace is heading must at times have made it difficult to focus on their immediate tasks. At the same time, many of the workers at Kværner and Aker know each other well. They are working, or have worked, together on several projects, and have professional bonds.

That is one of the strongest reasons why an integration process between Kværner Oil & Gas and Aker Maritime will go smoothly despite past competition. The company will have much to offer once it is given time to consolidate and focus on the future, knowing what the future will be. The best argument for that is the fact that the employees of both companies have kept on working and winning major contract no matter what has been going on upstairs. While Kjell Almskog left in shame, the employees of Kværner have come out of the past troubles with pride!

While 2001 was a time of war between contractors; oil companies might be facing war in the time ahead. Environmentalists have announced fighting on all levels in order to stop exploration further north on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Within the government there is strong opposition to award further licenses in the Barents Sea and the northern part of the Norwegian Sea.

The best and possibly only way to get around the opposition is technology. The Petroleum & Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs is hoping technological innovations will give him the arguments needed to convince skeptics within his own party. The environmentalists will be harder to convince. But if oil companies join the discussion actively the right conclusions might be reached.