Olav Akselsen
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Olav Akselsen (28 August 1965 – 17 August 2021) was a
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
politician, who served six terms in the
Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
for the Norwegian Labour Party, and was Minister of Petroleum and Energy in the
first cabinet Stoltenberg Stoltenberg's First Cabinet governed Norway between 17 March 2000 and 19 October 2001. The Labour Party cabinet was led by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as ...
from 2000 to 2001. From 2010 to 2021, he worked for the
Norwegian Maritime Directorate The Norwegian Maritime Authority ( no, Sjøfartsdirektoratet) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for life, health, working conditions and the environment for Norwegian registered ships and ships at Norwegian ports. The authority, su ...
.


Early life and education

Akselsen was born in
Stord Stord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural ...
as the son of builder Arne Akselsen (born 1928) and his wife Aud Sortland (born 1932), who worked as an "assistant". He graduated from upper secondary school in 1984, took his
examen philosophicum Examen philosophicum (Latin for ''philosophic exam''; abbreviated to ''Ex.phil.'') is, together with Examen facultatum, one of two academic exams in most undergraduate programmes at Norwegian universities. Whereas ''Examen facultatum'' aims at te ...
course at the
University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...
in 1986 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in
geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
in 1988. Except for a tenure as a carpenter between 1986 and 1987, Akselsen had very little work experience outside of political life. Because of this, commentators have referred to him as a "
broiler A broiler is any chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') that is bred and raised specifically for meat production. Most commercial broilers reach slaughter weight between four and six weeks of age, although slower growing breeds reach slaught ...
", a term referring to a person socialized mainly within a political party.


Local politics

Before entering national politics, Akselsen had some experience in local politics. He was elected to the executive committee of the
municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
in his native
Stord Stord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural ...
in 1983, was re-elected in 1987 but left in 1989 when entering the national parliament. From 1983 to 1985 he had chaired the local branch of the Workers' Youth League, the
youth wing A youth wing is a subsidiary, autonomous, or independently allied front of a larger organization (usually a political party but occasionally another type of organization) that is formed in order to rally support for that organization from members ...
of the Labour Party. At the same time he was a member of the board of the Labour Party local chapter. He was a member of the board of the regional Hordaland party chapter from 1986 to 1988. After a hiatus from local politics he returned as leader of the local party chapter from 1998 to 2001. He also served on several public committees in Stord; pertaining to such matters as wild game, the environment, industry and equality. He was the deputy chair of some of these committees.


National politics


1989 to 2001

Akselsen was first elected to the
Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
in
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
, as the 14th representative from
Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...
county. He was re-elected in
1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
and
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
. Three years into his third term, Bondevik's centrist first cabinet fell due to a failed motion of confidence.
Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
took over as
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, and selected Akselsen to his cabinet as Minister of Petroleum and Energy. During this period, Akselsen's seat in parliament was taken by Sigurd Grytten and
Rita Tveiten Rita Tveiten (born 22 January 1954, in Bergen) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland in 1993, and was re-elected on one occasion. She served as a deputy representative during th ...
, the latter for two weeks in 2001. The position of Minister of Petroleum and Energy was central in Stoltenberg's first cabinet, partly because Bondevik's cabinet had lost the motion of confidence because of unwillingness to build
fossil fuel power plant A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, wh ...
s. The
parliamentary opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
, including the Labour Party, held this to be necessary, and Akselsen had marked himself as a strong supporter of
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
power plants. He viewed the power plant at
Mongstad Mongstad is an industrial site in Vestland county, Norway. The site sits on the border of the municipalities of Alver and Austrheim, with most of the site in Alver. The site features an oil refinery for Equinor and other oil companies, including ...
as especially important. During Akselsen's tenure as Minister of Petroleum and Energy, the controversial part-
privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of the petroleum company Statoil also occurred. In January 2004, he was revealed to be a member of the secret "Oil Group", an informal forum consisting of present and former Labour Party politicians as well as representatives from Norwegian business sector, especially
oil companies The following is a list of notable companies in the petroleum industry that are engaged in petroleum exploration and production. The list is in alphabetical order by continent and then by country. This list does not include companies only involved ...
. However, in 2001 Akselsen retracted a permission to drill for oil in the
Norwegian Sea The Norwegian Sea ( no, Norskehavet; is, Noregshaf; fo, Norskahavið) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to ...
outside of
Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvà ...
.


2001 to 2009

The first Stoltenberg cabinet did not survive the
2001 Norwegian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 9 and 10 September 2001. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1438 The governing Labour Party lost seats and their vote share was the worst they had eve ...
, and a second cabinet was formed by Bondevik. Akselsen, however, had entered the same election, and was re-elected for his fourth term. He was re-elected again in 2005, but despite the return of Stoltenberg as Prime Minister, Akselsen was not selected to his cabinet—although stated to possess the "potential". From 1989 to 1993 Akselsen was, within the parliament, mainly a member of the Standing Committee on Justice, chairing it from April 1993. From 1993 to 1997 he was the secretary of the Standing Committee on Justice; from December 1996 he was also a member of the Enlarged Foreign Affairs Committee. From 1997 to 2001 he was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment, chairing it from February to March 2000, at which point he became Minister of Petroleum and Energy. He was also a member of the 37-member Election Committee. From 2001 to 2005 he chaired the Standing Committee on Business and Industry, and from 2005 to 2009 he chaired both the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Enlarged Foreign Affairs Committee. One year before the 2009 Norwegian parliamentary election, Akselsen announced that he declined to stand for re-election. Norwegian election researcher Anders Todal Jenssen stated that his specific declination is "probably problematic for orwegian Prime Minister/nowiki> Stoltenberg", at a time when 31 politicians of the current red–green coalition had announced their withdrawal from Parliament. In late August 2008 Akselsen was appointed director of the
Norwegian Maritime Directorate The Norwegian Maritime Authority ( no, Sjøfartsdirektoratet) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for life, health, working conditions and the environment for Norwegian registered ships and ships at Norwegian ports. The authority, su ...
, a position he took after his parliamentary term ran out in October 2009. He resigned from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate in May 2021.


Illness and death

Akselsen was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. In early 2021, he was treated for a brain tumour. Akselsen died on 17 August 2021, eleven days before his 56th birthday. He was survived by his wife and three children.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akselsen, Olav 1965 births 2021 deaths Directors of government agencies of Norway Petroleum and energy ministers of Norway Members of the Storting Hordaland politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians University of Bergen alumni 21st-century Norwegian politicians 20th-century Norwegian politicians Deaths from brain cancer in Norway