Norwegian owners and industry figures expect little change for shipping despite a bruising defeat for the parties largely favoured by business and investment interests.
Election results on 13 September for Norway's Storting, or parliament, gave a clear majority to the centre-left group expected to take the reins of power after eight years of a right-wing coalition government.
Three parties look set to control 89 of 169 parliament seats — the historically dominant Labour Party, the Socialist Left, and the rural-oriented Centre Party.
Right-wing campaigning warned that a left-leaning government would harm Norwegian private business especially through increases in wealth tax rates, and that the more radical elements in the left coalition would cut offshore oil and gas production drastically.
Shipowning sources in Norway express little worry, but few seem eager to comment on the record.
The chief executive of a large stock-listed Oslo shipowner, who was unwilling to be named, was representative of several who do not expect a new government's wealth tax policy to batter Oslo's shipping investor community.
"They will not push it so high that people will start moving out," he said.
Another shipowner unwilling to be identified, the chief executive of a well-known private owner, acknowledged that the Labour-Socialist Left-Centre coalition is likely to introduce tax policies that he regards as unfavourable for most investors — except, he believes, shipowners.
"When you have assets that depreciate at a rate of 14% a year, you don't worry as much about an increased tax on wealth," he said. "It will hurt all other types of investment in Norway, but not shipping."
"Even in Norway, shipping is more or less protected from the consequences of national elections, because it is basically regulated by international bodies," he added.
Meanwhile, one name familiar to TradeWinds readers was a casualty of sorts in the Norwegian election.
Former LNG shipowner Jens Ulltveit-Moe, formerly a major financial backer of Norway's Conservative Party, had shifted his allegiance to the Norwegian Green Party, and was stood for election on the small party's parliamentary list.
Right-wing parties had raised the spectre of Green influence on coalition partners as a threat to continued Norwegian fossil fuel production.
The Norwegian Greens failed, however, to achieve the 4% minimum that allows small parties extra parliamentary seats, and will thus play no role in coalition building.
In January, Norwegian investor Trond Mohn bought Ulltveit-Moe's Umoe Gas Carriers and renamed it Norspan Gas Carriers. The company holds minority stakes in four LNG carriers in Trygve Seglem's Knutsen OAS Shipping fleet.
