It's one thing that crude oil prices now hover around USD 40 a barrel, meaning record-high revenues at present. But the high prices have also fueled record-high futures contracts, with oil being ordered for delivery in 2008 at more than USD 30 a barrel.
"We've never had such high oil prices so far ahead in the future," oil analyst Øivind Munth-Kaas told newspaper Aftenposten on Wednesday.
Today's prices, combined with high production levels, mean an extra NOK 200 billion (nearly USD 30 billion) can roll into state coffers over the next four years. In a country of just 4.5 million people, that's a lot of money.
It means, theoretically, that every single Norwegian will have another NOK 45,000 than earlier estimated to their credit in the state's oil fund by 2008.
That will come in handy when the times comes for the state to meet such financial obligations as pensions if and when Norway's North Sea oil wells start drying up.
Meanwhile, oil experts are expecting even higher oil prices later in the year, which will mean even more revenues for Norway. While the average citizen also will have to fork out more money for his or her oil consumption (gasoline prices at the pump in Norway now run around NOK 10 per liter, or nearly USD 6 a gallon) the state is charged with setting aside much of that money for future generations.
Even conservative officials in the state's Finance Ministry, charged with being tight-fisted and worried about revenue shortfalls, realize Norway is in the midst of an oil bonanza this summer. "It looks promising," allowed Geir Mo Johansen of the ministry's petroleum committee to newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.
Their budget forecast originally called for a drop in oil revenues this year, to NOK 143.5 billion from NOK 170 billion last year. That figure was boosted to NOK 160 billion in the state's revised budget this spring, but high oil prices mean total revenues may actually amount to as much as NOK 190 billion-200 billion by yearend.
