Norway , where oil helped create one of the world’s most stable and prosperous societies, finds itself among the most exposed to falling crude prices. Though the blessings of energy wealth have hardly turned to a curse, the industry’s highest labor costs, which saw the average offshore worker earn $179,000 last year, threaten to curb investment as oil tumbles. In August, Helge Lund, chief executive officer of state oil company Statoil ASA (STL) , remarked that while $100-a-barrel oil once provided an excuse for champagne, it now barely covered the expense of new projects. Two months later, with crude hovering near $85 a barrel and Lund, the leading figure in Norway’s oil industry for 10 years, moving to a smaller British competitor, lower prices risk undermining economic growth and cutting tax receipts. Norway has already been coping with 13 years of production declines from its […]