How much of Norway's government revenue comes from oil and gas royalties 2023

1. What the main official numbers say: big sums, different labels

Different official and industry sources use distinct measures: Statistics Norway’s preliminary “petroleum revenues” for general government are NOK 829 billion in 2023 — a headline figure in its public revenue accounting ^[1]. The government’s own reporting has also described the state’s net cash flow from petroleum at about NOK 978 billion in 2023 ^[2]. These differences arise because one series is a broader accounting of petroleum-related receipts and the other is a net cash‑flow presentation tied to state receipts to the sovereign fund and accounts ^{[1] [2]}.

2. The commonly cited share: ~32% of government revenue

For an easy-to-use share, EITI’s country summary explicitly says Norway’s oil and gas sector accounts for roughly 32% of total government revenue (a figure tied to 2023-era reporting) — this is the clearest single-percentage claim among your sources ^[3]. That share is consistent with Norway’s pattern in 2022–2023, where petroleum receipts were unusually large because of high gas and oil prices and therefore represent a much larger slice of public income than in typical years ^{[4] [3]}.

3. Why numbers vary: tax timing, cash flow vs. accruals and transfers

Reporting differences stem from what is being measured: tax payments by oil companies (some sources report taxes collected), dividends/SDFI receipts (state equity income), and net cash flow transferred to the Government Pension Fund Global (the “oil fund”) are all part of “petroleum revenues” but appear in different tables and timing buckets ^{[5] [6] [1]}. Reuters and OilPrice highlighted large projected petroleum revenue totals for 2023 (NOK ~1.38 trillion or ~$131–132bn) during budget drafting in late 2022, but later statistical revisions and cash-flow accounting produced other headline numbers ^{[7] [8] [1]}.

4. What 32% means practically — and its limits

If you use EITI’s ~32% figure, the implication is that nearly one-third of central government receipts in the period were linked to oil and gas. That underscores how important petroleum is to financing Norway’s welfare state and sovereign fund decisions ^{[3] [6]}. Limitations: sources do not present a single unified denominator or identical revenue concepts; Statistics Norway’s and government cash-flow series show the sector’s nominal receipts can swing by hundreds of billions NOK year-to-year depending on prices and exchange rates ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Competing perspectives and potential agendas

Industry and market outlets (e.g., OilPrice, Reuters) emphasized record‑high expected revenues in budget drafts during the 2022–2023 price spike — useful when forecasting — while Statistics Norway provides later, audited-style figures that may be lower after revisions ^{[8] [7] [1]}. EITI’s presentation that the sector “accounts for about 32% of total government revenue” comes from a transparency/advocacy body highlighting extractives’ fiscal role; that framing supports arguments for strong state capture of resource rents and sovereign-wealth management ^[3]. Watch for messaging: pro-industry outlets may emphasize production and value, while fiscal‑prudence commentators highlight transfers to the sovereign fund and fiscal rules ^{[2] [6]}.

6. What the sources do not settle / further reading needed

Available sources do not give a single, universally defined “percentage of government revenue from oil and gas royalties in 2023” using the word “royalties”: Norway abolished old royalty regimes and instead takes value mainly through taxation, dividends and state equity (SDFI), not a classic production royalty — Lexology notes there is no production royalty in the contemporary Norwegian model ^[9]. To pin down “royalties” specifically or to reconcile every accounting series (taxes collected vs. net cash flow vs. transfers to the fund) you would need detailed line-item tables from Norway’s Ministry of Finance and Statistics Norway for 2023, which are not exhaustively reproduced across the sources presented here ^{[6] [1]}.

Bottom line: using the best single-percentage summary in current reporting, Norway’s oil and gas sector is reported to have provided about 32% of total government revenue around 2023 — but the exact NOK amount and the accounting label depend on which official series you choose (NOK ~829bn vs. state net cash flow values near NOK 978bn in different publications) ^{[3] [1] [2]}.