The history of Norway's most valuable company

The Storting (parliament) had resolved to establish a state oil company. This now had to be built up. So who was to be responsible for managing the state’s commercial interests in the oil industry? And who were these people who would shape the company?

Both similarities and differences between Norway and Brazil as oil nations have emerged from the partnership which has developed between them. Neither country initially had petroleum production expertise, but both created state oil companies and their own specialist milieus. These joined forces early over subsea technology, helping to make the Latin American country one of Equinor’s core areas today.

Although the Tommeliten project reached its goals, it was not without problems along the way. Not all technical challenges were equally serious. Something good also came out of the problems, with solutions that benefited later projects.

Nigeria was Africa’s largest oil producer and one of the world’s biggest exporters of this commodity, with Angola close on its heels. These two big west-coast petroleum nations were designated as the second big priority area for the Statoil-BP alliance. But war, corruption, intricate licensing systems and domestic opposition did what they could to undermine the commitment.

Norway’s block 34/10 was so attractive that it had been nicknamed the “golden block”, and became Statoil’s baptism of fire as an operator. Although the company had to share it with two partners, it secured the operatorship of the first licence on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) with only domestic licensees.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is often presented as a means of combating climate change – and has already been under way on Norway’s Sleipner gas field since 1996.