Norway is celebrated for its successful management of petroleum resources. This success is often attributed to Norway's institutions and to key Norwegian policymaking figures. However, the roles of foreign experts in shaping early Norwegian oil policy have been overlooked. This article explores the roles of two Iraqi oil experts, Farouk Al-Kasim and Hasan Zakariya, and finds that they contributed to shaping the Norwegian petroleum management system at a crucial stage in its development. The article reveals the interconnectedness of global oil policies and challenges conventional North-South diffusion narratives, broadening our understanding of the impact of decolonisation on contemporary Europe.

This paper explores the vertical integration of oil-producing countries. Attempts at vertical integration were prominent among oil-producing countries throughout most of the twentieth century, but particularly following the surge of resource nationalism in the 1970s. Vertical integration attempts have largely been regarded as a sideshow in the history of global oil. This article argues that vertical integration was a crucial aspect of producer country strategies into the 1970s and 1980s, and that it affected the organization of national oil industries in important ways. It does so by exploring the Norwegian case. The article demonstrates the importance of vertical integration to the long-term development of the Norwegian oil industry. It discusses the implications of these findings for the study of vertical integration in other oil-producing countries.