Oil is, evidently, not enough to make a country rich. Look at Libya which has about the same population as Norway and even larger oil (and gas) reserves. The Norwegian (nominal) GDP/Capita is nine times that of Libya!
Many people, even in my home country Sweden (which is a neighbor country of Norway), seem unaware of the fact that a lot of the Norwegian wealth comes from business activities that demand a certain degree of intelligence like shipping, shipbuilding, mining, investments on various global markets (stock, real estate etc), fishing, forest industry and other industustrial activities.
Furthermore, Norway is a very well administered country with a population that believes in hard work and law and order, in similarity to the other Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland).
To a large extent, Scandinavia is the richest part of the Earth due to intelligence and CULTURAL traits.
It’s just like the prosperity of the US, which comes from Capitalism, work ethics and belief in freedom in combination with justice, well working societal institutions and respect for law and order.
I agree Scandinavia is more Socialist than the US, but our kind of Socialism isn’t one that hurts our successful companies. Quite contrary, Scandinavia is today one of the fastest growing economies on earth and the business environment is great. Among other things, the corporate taxes are really low (way lower than in the US).
I also agree some of the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) have received too many Muslim immigrants. Many of them are very Westernized, but there are also a lot of Muslims who don’t wish to integrate. These people should be sent back.
Lets just call it the James D. Watson effect