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BEHIND THE NEWS
A News Commentary Service Published by Ramm Energy Partner
HOW IT WORKS
WHAT IT IS
"Behind The News" (BTN) is a news
analysis and commentary service - not a news digest.
The idea is to comment and analyze current events related to the petroleum and energy business in Norway and in Norwegian politics as they happen, and where possible and relevant, add additional
information not provided by the main news sources. I also comment on relevant political documents as well as Norwegian and international research reports of interest, studies from business associations, and so on. Go to lists over all back issues with headlines and bullet points from this open page.
WHAT YOU
GET
When there is something to analyze or
comment, you will receive an e-mail with a short summary of the
news or documents to be discussed, followed by a summary of the commentary and the commentary itself. The text includes links to
the original news sources or documents, in English
when available, otherwise in Norwegian, and occasionally in other languages. The commentaries come in two
channels, one Petroleum
Channel and one for Norwegian Politics, always in English. They do not follow any pre-determined schedule (events
never do), and could be frequent in some periods and infrequent
in others, but you are guaranteed at least 40 messages (both
channels together) in any six month subscription period.
A DATA BASE COVERING MORE THAN A DECADE
When you order a permanent subscription, I will give you user-ID and password to access the closed part of this website. Here you can browse or search through all back issues in full text since the beginning in August 1999 (more than 1,000 as per 1 January, 2012). This is an extremely valuable data base for the relevant parts of Norwegian history for more than a decade, not available anywhere else.
WHY YOU
NEED IT
You need this service for your corporate planning in Norway; a country where business is strongly affected by politics. You also need it as an actor participating in the many processes within the business community and its cluster organisastions and institutions. What are the main strategic issues for the petrolem cluster? Will it maintain its technological edge? Will the supply industry stay competitive and continue to extend its global reach? What are the challenges for the various groups of companies? Will the State intervene more in Statoil's business activities? Will Statoil succeed with its internationalization strategy? Will it continue to focus its NCS portfolio? Will other actors contribute to re-establish diversity? How does ownership matter for the supply industry? What happens to emerging venture firms? What is "best practise" between customers and suppliers? Will the Impact Studies for the Barents Sea SE and the Jan Mayen area end up with opening decisions and license rounds? Will there be an Impact Study and finally an opening of the areas outside Lofoten/Vesterålen? What happens in the "quiet diplomacy" about the Barents Sea North? How will the government follow up the Parliament Report on the NCS activities? Will it listen to the proposals from the opposition about improved framework conditions? How should the petroleum tax system be amended, and what can we expect from the Government? How will climate policies influence the petroleum and energy industries? What is the outlook for Norwegian gas exports to Europe and elsewhere? Will there be a new pipeline to the Barents Sea? Will the Government reach its ambitions about developing new CO2 capture technology, and can foresters convince politicians to go for biological capture in forests? How should the the petroleum industry meet the challenges from its green critics? What is true corporate social responsibility, and what is simply blowing in the wind?
On the political scene, we follow in particular economic policies, industry policy, regulative issues, major political controvercies, etc. We also follow the debate on new growth and innovation theory and policy, the debates about ownership and "active industry policy", and so on. Then there are many questions about the political development: What is the outlook for 2013 national elections, and what will the different government options mean for the petroleum industry? Will the red-green coalition stay in office until the election, or will it break up on climate and energy policies?
WHY YOU
NEED THIS SERVICE
To start with, there isn't any other. More
important, because it is completely independent, candid and
better than the media. Norwegian media have grown increasingly superficial, tabloid and
homogenous, and their perception of reality is often influenced by
what is considered "politically correct" and convenient
for circulation.
WHY IT IS
SPECIAL
BTN is not written by a committee
with compromises and reservations, but by one individual
with a profiled view - myself. The "we" in the commentaries is the editorial "we" - it sounds too self-centered to use "I" in that context. And
BTN is not mainstream. I consider it to be more important to try to be right
than to be liked. It is not value-neutral, since only
zombies are void of values and opinions. It is objective
in the sense that I try my best to be loyal to reality and logic, but not in the twarthed sense that all
opinions and perceptions are equally true or good.
WHY I
KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
I have intimate knowledge of all relevant
institutions and major issues through more than 45
years of experience from Norwegian politics, public
administration, and the petroleum business. I have been a journalist
and an editor; a politician and a deputy minister; a small
business manager and a business consultant for most major
companies in the industry as well as the authorities and many business associations. Nobody else
can claim to be an insider from all these vantage points. You can
see my CV here. Better, contact your trusted business friends
in Norway.
HOW YOU
TRY IT
BTN is available for subscribers only, but
you can on request (send a
mail!) get a free trial
subscription for the period you need to test and decide. I
don't want any uninformed or impulsive sales. I want you to
realize that you like the service and need it before you pay.
Some do not like it - or me. That's fair enough. I
don't like everybody or everything either. And you don't
need something that tries to be everything to everybody.
HOW YOU
BUY IT
I'll invoice you when you are ready to make
a purchase. The price is NOK 12,000 (25% VAT added if invoice is paid from Norway) for six months, pre-paid (reasonable
after you have enjoyed a free trial subscription, OK?) which
includes all messages of both channels and access to the
closed web site with the entire full-text archive. This is a company
subscription which is the only one available. It gives you
the right to redistribute as much as you like within your
corporation (at least 50% ownership both directions), world-wide. External Board Members can be included with a supplementary subscription of NOK 2,500.
CONFIDENTIALITY
By agreeing to a trial subscription or
purchasing a paid subscription, you commit yourself to treat the
messages as company confidential, that is, not to quote or
redistribute to persons not employed by the
subscriber. You are, however, allowed to recommend the service to
your business contacts and I won't object if you once in a while
extend the confidentiality for this purpose.
SECURITY
I have full virus protection, and have never encountered any significant virus problems. Your email address is safe, since all messages are emailed with a suppressed recipient list. Nobody else has access to the subscribers list, and I am not in the irresponsible business of selling addresses, to anyone, period. Dealing with me will definitely not cause any spamming. There is no advertisements in the mails or the website, not because I have objections to advertisements, but because I can't bother to sell them. Note that I occasionally encounter problems with subscribers' spam filters. Such problems are ususally dicovered and solved, but if I appear to be silent for too long, please take contact to check whether there might be a technical explanation.
FORMALITIES
I am not in the US, so I do not need long
pages of disclaimers, but it should be obvious that although I
have a pretty good record of analyzing future events, I can't be
responsible for whatever actions you undertake based on my advice.
Once you have agreed to a subscription, it will run until you
cancel, which means you are liable for a proportional share of
the subscription fee if you cancel after the renewal date. There
is no refund if you cancel in the middle of the period, but I will credit you in the next invoice if the number of messages falls short
of 40 per six months (or 80 for a 12-month subscription that also is available). Nothing is added for messages
above the guaranteed number.
CREDIT
I am a one-man company and
not a bank, so I am not in the business of giving credit. You are
expected to pay within
14 days after I have sent the invoice. I don't care whether
large corporations have a "policy of at least 30 days credit",
I do not and that's how the deal is, unless we have agreed
differently. On the other hand, I am very sloppy about sending reminders, I am often late with invoices, and I rarely bother to add anything for late payment. It is more interesting to write than to deal with all that paper work. That should make up for the 14 days. Thanks for understanding how it is to run a small business alone.
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Ramm Energy Partner, PO Box 104 Stovner, N-0913 Oslo, Norway.
Tel +47 21902000 or +47 92805015.
Email btn@getmail.no
This page last updated 2 January, 2012.