Norwegian company suppliers for the oil and gas exploitation in Norway and abroad 2003

The Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration has for the forth time monitored how Norwegian suppliers to the petroleum activity find their way to various markets. The data are valid for activities during 2003. The study is carried out among 413 companies at the business level and for 21 at the corporation level. The companies are mainly small and middle sized while the corporations that comprises several companies, are to be considered as large in the Norwegian context. 204 of the small and middle sized companies replied. In the group of larger corporations about 95 % replied. As the latter group is responsible for 80-90 % of the turnover in the Norwegian petroleum sector the total estimates in the investigation should be quite accurate. More than 90 % of the registered sales abroad may be contributed to 22 companies. It should therefore be possible to catch important development characteristics in the petroleum sector by focusing on 30-40 companies. Another structural characteristic is that the companies involved in petroleum activities rarely involve themselves in pure research and development activities. The current innovation is made in the context of solving specific challenges connected to reservoir, ocean depth, climate and distance and usually in relation to customers and suppliers. The petroleum sector had an average turnover of 39 % in their trade with foreign countries in 2003 which is an increase. The majority of the companies have a registered sale abroad. The tendency is increasing. The petroleum regions that receive the majority of the Norwegian sales during 2003 as previously, are the UK/North Sea, the USA/Canada and South East Asia/Australia. The sales to the Western Africa and South America are also considerable. The petroleum sector in Norway has achieved market positions over almost the entire globe in less than 10 years. With the collected data material as a basis it is estimated a 34 thousand million NOK petroleum related sale in 2003. Out of this figure the study has documented information for 31 thousand million NOK from the companies. The participants in the monitor have also replied to several questions regarding methods and problems connected to their obtaining market shares in the foreign markets. More detailed analysis is necessary to determine which market strategy would apply to the various situations. Most of the repliers point to relations with international corporations as most helpful in obtaining market shares. Relations to more local companies also Norwegian ones, are also helpful. At a basic level most of the companies point out that obtaining contacts to suppliers and displace customer relations may be difficult. Many have encountered political obstacles. However, at present most firms stress that it is difficult to compete in price due to the high level of costs in Norway. Many companies therefore chose to have production activates in foreign countries