Statoils huvudkvarter
The Ministry of Industry and Handicraft — and later the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy — exercised the powers of sole owner on behalf of the state.
From Statoil to Equinor
The political motivation for creating the company was a desire for Norwegian participation in offshore operations from the start in order to build up expertise which could form the basis for a national oil industry. They included a requirement for the board to discuss key issues with the industry minister later the petroleum and energy minister.
As early as , Statoil launched efforts to become involved in petrochemicals. After lobbying and acquisitions, the company secured full control of the Rafnes plant in Bamble south of Oslo as well as joint ownership of the Mongstad refinery with Norsk Hydro. Modernisation plans for the latter facility, soon initiated by Statoil, eventually prompted Hydro to sell out of the plant to the state company.
That left it solely responsible for the upgrading. Its first licence interest was in the Statfjord field, which came on stream in The company was the first Norwegian player to obtain operator responsibility, on the Gullfaks field in , and it took over the Statfjord operatorship in That involved dividing its equity interests in most production licences into two parts, one retained by Statoil and the other taken over directly by the state.
The latter thereby gained a direct interest in most of the oil and gas fields on the Norwegian continental shelf NCS. This solution did not affect operatorships, and Statoil served as the commercial manager of the SDFI with responsibility for all petroleum sales. In that year, it yielded about NOK billion to the Treasury. From then on, it was partially privatised with the Norwegian state as the majority shareholder — initially at As part of the same reform, two new state-owned companies were established — Petoro to manage the SDFI and Gassco to operate the Norwegian gas transport system.
Equinor’s company history in brief
This raised NOK 9. This transaction was implemented on 1 October At the same time, the company changed its name to StatoilHydro. A proposal by the board on 15 March that Statoil should change its name to Equinor was approved by the annual general meeting on 15 May and adopted with effect from 16 May. The state holds 67 per cent of the shares in Equinor through the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
According to the report on state ownership for , Equinor ASA is an international technology-based energy company with oil and gas production as its main activity. It also has downstream operations and activities in renewable energy — including solar and offshore wind power. In addition, the company was one of the biggest suppliers of natural gas to the European market. At 31 December , it had about 20 employees.
Equinor is still listed on the Oslo and New York stock exchanges, and its head office remains in Stavanger.
Bli med inn i Statoils nye Oslo-kontor
Furthermore, this ownership will contribute to maintaining a knowledge-based and high-tech industrial group with head office functions in Norway. Search close. Den norske stats oljeselskap a. Its name was subsequently shortened to Statoil, and is now Equinor. A brief summary of the main changes affecting the company from to is provided below.
Photo: Knut Vindfallet. Relevant articles. Management of and in Equinor: Equinor and the state. A desire to grow and become more like the international oil companies emerged early on in Statoil. Since the early s, it has been involved in more than 50 countries.