Fueled by the sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor, the surge in oil prices and, above all, gas could bring the Nordic kingdom almost 1,500 billion crowns (150 billion euros) in oil revenues. -additional gas companies this year, according to the Nordea bank.

Already one of the richest in the world, the country, the largest exporter of hydrocarbons in Western Europe, would thus earn 50,000 crowns more than expected every second, night and day, without moving a finger.

A manna that makes you uncomfortable.

"If there are times when it is not fun to make money, it is the case today with such a backdrop", admitted the Minister of Petroleum and Energy , Terje Aasland, at the microphone of the TV2 channel.

A building of Norwegian energy giant Equinor in Fornebu, Baerum, Norway, February 28, 2022 Håkon Mosvold Larsen NTB/AFP/Archives

Via taxes, dividends and direct holdings in hydrocarbon deposits, a large part of oil revenues ends up in the pockets of the State, which places them in its sovereign fund, already the largest in the world.

Although it has suffered from the fall in global stock markets in recent weeks, this gigantic woolen stocking today weighs around 11,550 billion crowns, or more than 2 million crowns (around 200,000 euros) for each of the 5.4 million of inhabitants of the country.

"Norway is not immune (...) to an inconvenient truth: it is a form of war profiteering", noted the newspaper Dagbladet in an editorial.

“While Ukraine is crushed and most other countries mostly suffer the negative fallout from the war in the form of rising energy prices, rising food prices and accelerating inflation in general, we are reaping the rewards," he said.

A multipurpose Marshall Plan?

Voices are raised to redistribute all or part of these war dividends.

The Green Party (MDG) thus proposes to place the tens of billions of additional petrodollars in a "solidarity fund" in the service of a kind of "Marshall plan" with multiple uses.

This would make it possible both to finance humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of Ukraine, to help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian gas and to assist the poorest countries in the face of soaring energy and food.

"The extra oil revenue from the war should go to Ukraine, not to us," MDG said.

For the time being, the centre-left government has promised “up to” two billion crowns in humanitarian aid devoted to this country.

"show leadership"

For Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, the most useful Norwegian contribution is to continue to deliver as much gas as possible to Europe to help it reduce its dependence on Russian gas as it now seeks to do.

Norway covers between 20 and 25% of the needs of the European Union and the United Kingdom via a vast network of gas pipelines against between 45 and 50% for Russia.

Ambassador of the European Green Pact, Paal Frisvold proposes to give up the "superprofits" announced and to cap the price of gas sold to Europeans, for some, already very heavily indebted and who are just emerging from a pandemic.

"Our receipts are other people's bills," he told AFP.

"The main thing is the signal of solidarity, to show leadership in a historic moment. My children will ask me: dad, what was Norway doing during the war in Ukraine? I don't want to say we were lining our pockets," he said.

In the midst of budget preparations, the government indicated that such a cap was not relevant.

© 2022 AFP