[icefo]

Norway is far from being the only that has oil but to me it seems it has / had the best management of this resource. From what I understand the money doesn't go to a few people / companies but a good part is used to prop up the economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Norway

[Thlom]

Most of the oil money goes to the sovereign wealth fund, but the industry itself is huge including both drilling operations, corporate and a gigantic service sector and so on which of course participates directly in the economy. Oil is taxed at a very high rate and that tax money is what goes to the sovereign wealth fund. F.ex. Equinor, the majority state owned oil company payed 50 billion dollars in tax for 2022.

Some of the funds profit can be used to prop up the state budget, but it's regulated so as to not over heat the economy.

[lb1lf]

This is an important point; rather than just serving as a supplier of the raw resource, local industry has developed lots of equipment which is used within the oil&gas sector worldwide, ensuring we have something to fall back on when we're done pumping hydrocarbons out of the ground.

The industry is currently seeing the writing on the wall, though, and is trying to reinvent itself in a greener hue - for instance, my employer, who's been developing handling systems for ROVs and various seismic exploration equipment are now going all in on motion compensated walkways intended to bring crew and equipment out to offshore wind turbines.

Anyway, once petrodollars dwindle, we are reasonably well positioned to handle the transition. These are exciting times for engineers!