Norway's GDP per capita was higher than US and UK in 1987. They have been rich for a long time.

https://data.worldbank.org/share/widget?end=2018&indicators=...

Great chart! I guess my assumed reference was the current mental image where there's the oil fund worth over a million crowns for every citizen.

That fund affects day to day life a lot less than you might expect, FWIW. It's not like we get to just... spend that; it's somewhat comparable to saying "the New York Stock Exchange contains over $foobar dollars per citizen" (although of course the fund isn't managed at all like a stock exchange, either).

The most direct influence I've seen of the oil fund is that it provides capital behind some investments systems that are aimed to drive business creation in _non_-oil sectors (including technology).

Most other resource rich nations are victims of the resource curse. That you don't just spend that money and that the most direct influence you've seen is economic diversification is extraordinary as far as recent history is concerned.

Norway produced only slightly less oil in 1987 than they do now. The Aleksander Kielland accident happened in 1980, and by that time, oil was huge business.