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'Statoil ASA' (, ) is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It is the largest petroleum company in the Nordic countries and Norway's largest company, employing over 25000 people. While Statoil is listed on both the Oslo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, the Norwegian state still holds majority ownership, with 64%. 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 2006 Statoil revealed a proposal to merge with the oil business of Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian conglomerate.^[1] Under the rules of the EEA the proposal was approved by the European Union on May 3, 2007^[2] and by the Norwegian Parliament on June 8, 2007.^[3] Statoil's shareholders will hold 67.3% of the new company² which is likely to be known as StatoilHydro.³ 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 and gas company in the world.³ The company will continue having its main headquarter located in Stavanger. The international sales and marketing division will be located in Oslo with other operations located in Stavanger.

Contents

History

Operations

Controversy and corruption

Rotvoll controversy

Statoil corruption case

External links

References

History

'Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap A/S' was founded as a private limited company owned by the Government of Norway on 14 July 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 Petroleum 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. 1987-88 saw the largest scandal in the companies history, the Mongstad scandal that made the until then unassailable CEO Arve Johnsen withdraw.
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'.

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 and ConocoPhilips Jet in the mid 90s, then sold by Statoil to Topaz Oil in 2006.
In 2006, Statoil was approved to become the world's largest project to implement carbon sequestration as a means to mitigate carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

Controversy and corruption

Rotvoll controversy

:''see Rotvoll controversy
In 1991 there arose a controversy between Statoil and local enviromentalists, mainly from Natur og Ungdom and Friends of the Earth Norway, who protested the building of a new research and development centre at Rotvoll in Trondheim, Norway, wetlands area close to the city with significant bird life.. The controversy was climaxed with civil disobedience by the environmentalists, but the centre was still built.

Statoil corruption case

:''see Statoil corruption case
The Statoil corruption case refers to the company's misconduct and use of corruption in Iran in 2002/2003 in an attempt to secure lucrative oil contracts in that country. This was mainly achieved by hiring the services of Horton Investments, an Iranian consultancy firm owned by Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani. Horton Investments was paid USD 15.2 million by Statoil to influence important political figures in Iran to grant oil contracts to Statoil. The corruption scandal was uncovered by Norwegian paper Dagens Næringsliv on September 3, 2003.

External links

★ Corporate website

★ World’s Largest Carbon Sequestration Project Approved

★ Statoil operated oil fields Detailed list of all oil fields operated by Statoil

References

1. Hydro's oil and gas activities to merge with Statoil, ''Norsk Hydro'', published 2006-12-18, accessed 2007-06-20
2. EU regulators approve Statoil, Norsk Hydro merger, ''EU Business'', published 2007-05-03, accessed 2007-06-20
3. Norwegian Parliament Okays Statoil-Hydro Merger, ''Ocean-Resources'', published 2007-06-11, accessed 2007-06-20