Statoil

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Statoil ASA

Type	Public
Founded	1972
Headquarters	Stavanger, Norway
Key people	CEO: Helge Lund Chairman: Jannik Lindbæk
Industry	Oil and gas
Products	Oil Natural gas Petrochemicals
Revenue	USD 65.5 billion (2005)
Net income	USD 5.11 billion (2005)
Employees	25,644 (2005)
Website	www.statoil.com

A Statoil petrol station sign in Estonia

Statoil (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO) is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It is the largest petroleum company in the Nordic countries and Norway's largest company. While Statoil is listed on both the Oslo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, the Norwegian state still holds majority ownership, with 70.9%. The main office is located in Norway's oil capital Stavanger. The name Statoil is a truncated form of the State's oil.

Statoil is one of the largest net sellers of crude oil in the world, and a major supplier of natural gas to the European continent, Statoil also operates around 2000 service stations in 9 countries. The company's CEO from mid-2004 onwards is Helge Lund, formerly CEO of Aker Kværner.

In December 18, 2006 Statoil agreed to buy Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian conglomerate, oil and gas activities for around NOK 200 billion in shares, and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2007. If the plan goes through, the company will be the biggest offshore oil company in the world. The company will continue with its main office located in Norway's oil capital Stavanger.

1 History
2 Statoil to buy Norsk Hydro's oil and gas activities
3 Operations
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] History

Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S was founded as a private limited company owned by the Government of Norway on July 14, 1972 by a unanimous act passed by the Norwegian parliament Stortinget. The political motivation was Norwegian participation in the oil industry on the continental shelf and to build up Norwegian competency within the petroleum industry to establish the foundations of a domestic petroleum industry. Statoil was required to discuss important issues with the Minister of Industry, later Minister of Oil and Energy. Statoil was also required to submit an annual report to the parliament.

In 1973 the company started work acquiring a presence in the petrochemical industry. This resulted in the development of processing plants in Rafsnes and, in partnership with Norsk Hydro, the Mongstad plant in 1980. In 1981 the company acquired, as the first Norwegian company, operator rights on the Norwegian continental shelf on the Gullfaks field.

The company was privatised and made a public limited company (allmennaksjeselskap) in 2001, becoming listed on the both the Oslo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. At the same time it changed its name to Statoil ASA.

[edit] Statoil to buy Norsk Hydro's oil and gas activities

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

On December 18, 2006 Statoil and Norsk Hydro announced Statoil's plan to buy Norsk hydro's oil and gas activities which would create the world's largest off shore oil and gas operator. Upon the completion, Statoil-Hydro will have a total output of 1.9 million barrels per day. The name of the company is yet to be decided, but the interim name "StatoilHydro" is to be used until the name is formally approved in the Shareholders' meeting in 2008

Statoil shareholders will obtain two-thirds of the new company as a result of the transaction, with the balance held by Hydro's shareholders. The Norwegian Government, the biggest shareholder in both companies, approves the planned merger, and is indeed expected to increase its shareholding in Statoil-Hydro from 62% to 67% [1]. Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Prime Minister commented that he views the proposal as "the start of a new era. We are creating a global energy company and strengthening Norway’s oil and gas industry" [2].

It has been noted within the analyst community that a proposal will create an entity with much more competitive strength versus its much larger European rivals, including BP, Total S.A. and Shell, while also increasing the companies ability to make strategic acquisitions, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico [3]. It will be the ninth largest oil company in the world, and would be the 48th largest company in the world on the current Fortune Global 500 list with a revenue of 480 billion NOK. [4].

The company's management team will be led by Helge Lund (Statoil's President and CEO) as President and CEO, but it is disbuted if Eivind Reiten, President and CEO of Hydro, will become Chairman.

The company will shed Hydro's Aluminum division as a separate company. That company will keep the Hydro name and Eivind Reiten will stay on as CEO.

[edit] Operations

See Statoil operations by country

Statoil is the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, with 60% of the total production. The field operated are Glitne, Gullfaks, Heidrun, Huldra, Kristin, Kvitebjørn, Mikkel, Norne, Ormen Lange, Sleipner, Snorre, Snøhvit, Statfjord, Sygna, Tordis, Troll, Veslefrikk, Vigdis, Visund, Volve and Åsgard. The company also has processing plants at Kolsnes, Kårstø, Mongstad Tjeldbergodden and Melkøya.

In addition to the Norwegian continental shelf, Statoil operates oil fields in Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, United States and Venezuela. Statoil has offices that are looking for possible ventures in the countries of Egypt, Mexico, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. The company has processing plants in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany.

Statoil is involved in a number of pipelines, including Zeepipe, Statpipe, Europipe and Franpipe from the Norwegian continental shelf to Western Europe in addition to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Central Asia.

The company has trading offices for crude oil, refined petroleum products and natural gas liquids in London, UK, Stamford, USA and Singapore.

Statoil operates petrol station services in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden, a total of 2,000 stations in nine countries. Some fully automated stations are branded 1-2-3. The stations in Denmark and Sweden were purchased from Esso in 1985 while the stations in Ireland were purchased from British Petroleum in 1992 then sold by Statoil to Topaz Oil in 2006.

[edit] Trivia

On 2 October 2006 the singer and musician Katie Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records for playing the deepest underwater concert 303 meters below sea level on Statoil's Troll A platform in the North Sea [5].