Norwegian Petroleum Museum

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger presents the history and technological advancements of Norway’s offshore petroleum industry, featuring interactive exhibits and activities for all ages.

Planning your visit

Norway found oil in the North Sea in 1969, and within a generation went from a modest fishing and shipping economy to one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with a sovereign wealth fund now worth well over a trillion dollars. The Petroleum Museum in Stavanger explains how.

The building sits on the harbour, part of it on stilts over the water, and the exhibitions cover the geology, the engineering of offshore platforms in one of the most hostile seas on earth, the working life of the rigs, and the political decisions — notably keeping the resource in public hands and saving the revenue — that produced the fund.

The Alexander L. Kielland disaster of 1980, when a platform capsized killing 123 men, is covered directly.

So is the contradiction: a country funding its future on a product driving climate change, which the museum addresses rather than avoids.

Allow two hours. The main booking is an entrance ticket. Current availability is listed below.