Farouk Al-Kasim

Farouk Al-Kasim (, 8 July 1934 or 1936 ) is a Norwegian-Iraqi petroleum geologist. He played a major role in the exploration of Norway's petroleum resources within the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

Al-Kasim was decorated Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav in 24 September 2012.

Biography Early life Farouk Abdul Aziz Al-Kasim was born in Basra, Iraq, on 8 July 1934 While in his thirties, Abdul-Aziz married Wafika Yasin, Farouk's mother, when she was 14. After falling in love with her, he sent a letter to his family in Basra. While his father did not reject their relationship, he asked him to reconsider: "When you get children, they will be torn between two different cultures". They lived on the outskirts of Basra. Later he started working for the Iraq Petroleum Company. He had three children with his wife in Iraq: two boys and one daughter. After his return to Iraq, he was obligated to serve ten years in the military to pay back his free education in London, but as time went on, he started to become more wary of the government.

Life in Norway In 1968, Al-Kasim and his family left Iraq because of their son's medical problems, moving to Oslo, Norway because Norway was the only country to offer the care his son needed; his son had been born with cerebral palsy. In 1968, Norway's Ministry of Industry hired Al-Kasim as a consultant. His job was to analyse the North Sea exploration results. He and his colleagues proposed a white paper giving an important part to state participation. This work led to a law, voted unanimously, and the creation of a Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and a national company, Statoil. 'The Labour government "wanted this to be the new impetus in Norwegian industry.", he says. "And for that to be done properly, according to a socialist, the state has to be in the driving seat". Al-Kasim agreed with that view and landed the job of writing the nation's blueprint for how it would organise its fledgling oil industry.'

He became the director of resource management of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and has been given credit for high level of extraction rate of oil from the different fields—45% compared to 25% worldwide, spurring the rate of technological development.