We have utilized a static input-output model, based on supply and use tables from the national accounts, to calculate the share of total deliveries to the petroleum industry provided by domestic industries other than direct suppliers. Furthermore, we have estimated the share of value added in each supplier industry, along with the number of employed persons that can be attributed to deliveries to the petroleum sector.

The petroleum industry's resource usage—comprising investments, intermediate consumption, and labor costs—accounted for 8.9 percent of Mainland Norway's GDP in 2023. However, a portion of these investments and intermediate goods are supplied directly from abroad. Additionally, Norwegian suppliers or their subcontractors rely on imported intermediate inputs. When accounting for these "import leakages," the overall impact of the petroleum industry's domestic resource usage is reduced.

In 2023, 19.2 percent of investments in the petroleum industry were covered by direct imports, while domestic companies supplied the remainder. This initial delivery to the petroleum industry triggered a recursive chain of indirect deliveries involving both imports and domestic subcontractors. Among these ripple effects, the primary interest lies in the deliveries from domestic suppliers and subcontractors, specifically the value added (gross product) at each stage of the supply chain and the employment generated by this value creation. Imports by subcontractors bring the total import share (direct and indirect) up to 42.5 percent.

Based on the input-output calculations, an estimated 161,900 employed persons could be linked to Norwegian petroleum extraction in 2023. Of these, a minority were employed directly in the petroleum sector, while the majority worked in other industries supplying goods and services to the petroleum sector, either directly or indirectly. For each supplying industry, petroleum-related employment is assumed to be proportional to the share of the industry's gross product delivered to the petroleum sector. Employment linked to the petroleum industry corresponded to 5.5 percent of total employment in Mainland Norway in 2023. Driven by both increased investments and higher intermediate consumption in the petroleum industry, the estimated petroleum-related employment rose to 169,400 in 2024, and further to 178,700 in 2025.

Our study analyzes the effects of changes in demand from the petroleum sector by identifying the specific industries responsible for these deliveries. This is not synonymous with the overall impact of the petroleum industry on the Norwegian economy. Ripple effects stemming from additional income generated by petroleum activities for households and the government, as well as the subsequent macroeconomic effects of these ripples, are not included in this analysis. Furthermore, the analysis does not cover effects related to the activity of supplier industries on the labor market or on price formation. In the absence of demand from the petroleum industry, the supplier industries would, to some extent, be able to pivot towards other markets.