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StatoilHydro is a partner of [[Royal Dutch Shell]] in the [[Corrib gas project]], which entails developing a [[natural gas]] field off the northwest of [[Ireland]]. The project has proved controversial among local people and their supporters and has led to the establishment of a national campaign called [[Shell to Sea]], as well as various local groups with similar aims. The protests came to a head in the summer of 2005, when five men from [[County Mayo]], nicknamed the [[Rossport Five]], were jailed because of their opposition to the project, and Statoil filling stations around Ireland were picketed. Since then protests have continued at the site of the refinery at [[Bellanaboy]] and at the pipeline landfall at [[Glengad]], often turning into to scuffles between [[An Garda Síochána]] and scores of protestors attempting to block access to the site for the workers, which saw many protesters hospitalised.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1109/corrib.html/ |title=Three held at Bellanaboy protest (2007-11-9) |author=[[RTÉ]] |accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0713/corrib.html/ |title=Protest at site of Corrib gas terminal(2007-07-13) |author=[[RTÉ]] |accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0605/corrib.html/ |title=Five Corrib protestors charged after demo(2007-06-05) |author=[[RTÉ]] |accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref> The refinery is the largest building project in the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7368246.stm |title=Breakthrough in Shell gas dispute (2008-04-26) |author=[[BBC Northern Ireland]] |accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref> StatoilHydro's involvement in the project has also led to protests outside the Norwegian embassy in [[Dublin]], as well as expressions of support from Norwegian trade unions. |
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Statoil is a partner of [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]] in the [[Corrib gas project]], which entails developing a [[natural gas]] field off the northwest of [[Ireland]]. The project has proved controversial. In the summer of 2005, [[Rossport Five|five men]] from [[County Mayo]] were jailed for contempt of court after refusing to obey a temporary court injunction forbidding them to interfere with work being undertaken on their land. The ensuing protests led to the [[Shell to Sea]] campaign that opposes the project. |
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===Corruption=== |
===Corruption=== |
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Revision as of 16:03, 20 August 2009
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| Company type | Public (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Oil and gas, Power Generation |
| Founded | 1 October 2007 |
| Headquarters | Stavanger, Norway |
Key people | Helge Lund (CEO) Svein Rennemo (Chair) |
| Products | Oil, natural gas, petrochemicals |
| Revenue | NOK 656.0 billion (2008)[1] |
 NOK 198.8 billion (2008)[1] | |
| NOK 43.3 billion (2008)[1] | |
Number of employees | 29,500 (2008)[1] |
| Website | www.statoilhydro.com |
StatoilHydro ASA (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO) is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro.[2] StatoilHydro is the biggest offshore oil and gas company in the world[3] and the largest company by revenue in the Nordic Region.[4] The company is a fully-integrated petroleum company with production operations in thirteen countries and retail operations in eight. By market cap StatoilHydro is in 2008 ranked by Fortune Magazine as the world's 11th[2] largest oil and gas company, and as the worlds 59th largest company[3].
Operations
Upstream
StatoilHydro 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, StatoilHydro operates oil and gas fields in Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, United States and Venezuela. StatoilHydro 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. 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.
Midstream
StatoilHydro is involved in a number of pipelines, including Zeepipe, Statpipe, Europipe I and Europipe II, and Franpipe from the Norwegian continental shelf to Western Europe in addition to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Central Asia. The pipelines from Norway are organized through Gassled.
The company has trading offices for crude oil, refined petroleum products and natural gas liquids in London, Stamford and Singapore.
Downstream
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The company operates three brands of fuel stations: Statoil, Hydro and 1-2-3. StatoilHydro operates petrol station services in Denmark, Estonia, Ireland Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. Some fully automated stations are branded 1-2-3. In Sweden the company also operates Hydro stations. In total StatoilHydro has about 2,000 fuel stations. In mid-2008, Statoil service stations in the Republic of Ireland began to rebrand as Topaz, following the acquisition of the company in 2006 by Irish oil firm Topaz Energy Group.
History
The heritage of StatoilHydro derives from the three major Norwegian petroleum companies Statoil, Norsk Hydro and Saga Petroleum (the latter two merged in 1999).
Statoil
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 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.
In the 1980s Statoil decided to become a fully-integrated petroleum company and started building the Statoil fuel station brand. The stations in Norway originated as Norol stations while 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. Statoil also built up a network of stations in part of Eastern Europe in the 1990s.
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. The government still retained a majority ownership in the company. In 2007 Statoil bought a large area in the Athabasca oil sand field in Canada after purchasing North American Oil Sands Corporation for USD 2.2 billion.
Hydro
In 1965 Hydro joined Elf Aquitaine and six other French companies to form Petronord to perform search for oil and gas in the North Sea. Hydro soon became a large company in the North Sea petroleum industry, and also became operator of a number of fields, the first being Oseberg.
Hydro acquired in the late 1980s the Mobil service stations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, changing their name to Hydro. In 1995 Hydro merged its stations in Norway and Denmark with the Texaco, creating the joint venture HydroTexaco. The service station chain was sold in 2006 to Reitangruppen. In 1999 Hydro acquired Norway's third largest petroleum company Saga Petroleum, who had major upstream operations primarily in Norway and the United Kingdom. The British operations were later sold.
Merger
The merger proposal was announced in December 2006.[5] Under the rules of the EEA the merger was approved by the European Union on May 3, 2007[6] and by the Norwegian Parliament on June 8, 2007.[3] Statoil's shareholders hold 67.3% of the new company, with Norsk Hydro shareholders owning the remaining 32.7%.[6] The Norwegian Government, the biggest shareholder in both Statoil and Norsk Hydro, holds 62.5% of the company.[7] Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Prime Minister commented that he views the merger as "the start of a new era. We are creating a global energy company and strengthening Norway’s oil and gas industry."[8]
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 and Shell, while also increasing the ability of the company to make strategic acquisitions, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico.[9] It is 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 NOK 480 billion.[4]
The company's management team was initially to be led by President and CEO Helge Lund (who previously held the same posts at Statoil), with Eivind Reiten, the President and CEO of Hydro, acting as Chairman.[5]. However, Eivind Reiten decided to resign as chairman three days after the merger because of a possible corruption case in Hydro's former oil division. The Vice-Chair and former Minister of Petroleum and Energy Marit Arnstad served as chairperson until 1 April, when Svein Rennemo took up the post on a permanent basis after resigning as the CEO of the Norwegian oil services company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS).
To reflect a merger of two companies and with regards of the minor partner, Hydro, it was decided that the joint company should be given a new name. An actual new name was not decided upon at the time of the merger, and StatoilHydro was created for temporary usage only. The firm announced its intention to revert to the name Statoil ASA, and this was approved by the Annual General Meeting in May 2009.[10] The name will be changed during the last part of 2009.
Controversy and corruption
Rotvoll controversy
In 1991 there arose a controversy between Statoil and local environmentalists, 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
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.
Corrib gas project
StatoilHydro is a partner of Royal Dutch Shell in the Corrib gas project, which entails developing a natural gas field off the northwest of Ireland. The project has proved controversial among local people and their supporters and has led to the establishment of a national campaign called Shell to Sea, as well as various local groups with similar aims. The protests came to a head in the summer of 2005, when five men from County Mayo, nicknamed the Rossport Five, were jailed because of their opposition to the project, and Statoil filling stations around Ireland were picketed. Since then protests have continued at the site of the refinery at Bellanaboy and at the pipeline landfall at Glengad, often turning into to scuffles between An Garda Síochána and scores of protestors attempting to block access to the site for the workers, which saw many protesters hospitalised.[11][12][13] The refinery is the largest building project in the country.[14] StatoilHydro's involvement in the project has also led to protests outside the Norwegian embassy in Dublin, as well as expressions of support from Norwegian trade unions.
Corruption
The possible consultancy agreements and transactions associated with Hydro’s operations in Libya are under investigation. In an article in Aftenposten 9 November 2007 the journalist Erling Borgen criticizes Helge Lund for StatoilHydro's participation in corrupt and undemocratic countries. Helge Lund has stated that it is not his or StatoilHydro's intention to express opinions on such issues.
Environmental Record
Statoil and Shell were planning on building a gas-fire powerplant in Norway that would infuse CO2 underground or beneath the seabed, but they discarded the plan due to economic reasons.[15]
StatoilHydro has injected CO2 into the Utsira formation on the Sleipner field for environmental storage purposes since 1996. Natural gas containing approximately 8.5% CO2 is produced on the Sleipner Vest field. The gas is transported to the Sleipner Treatment platform, where the CO2 is removed. The gas is exported to the UK, Germany and Belgium, and the CO2 is injected into the Utsira formation where it is safely stored.[citation needed]
In 2009, the first floating wind turbine was launched by StatoilHydro. The 2.3 MW turbine can be anchored in water 120–700 m deep. It will be tested off the coast of Norway for two years.[16][17] The 120-meter-tall tower with a 2.3 MW turbine was towed 10 km offshore into the Amoy Fjord, in 220-meter-deep water, off of Stavanger, Norway on 2009-06-06 for a two year test run. The unit "is expected to start feeding power into the mainland grid by mid-July." [18]
References
- ^ a b c d "Annual Report 2008" (PDF). StatoilHydro. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ Offshore247 (2007-05-10). "StatoilHydro signature unveiled". Retrieved 2007-06-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Ocean Resources (2007-06-11). Norwegian Parliament "Okays Statoil-Hydro Merger". Retrieved 2007-06-20.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ a b E24 (2006-12-19). "Blant verdens 50 største". Retrieved 2007-10-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Norsk Hydro (2006-12-18). "Hydro's oil and gas activities to merge with Statoil". Retrieved 2007-06-20.
- ^ a b EU Business (2007-05-03). "EU regulators approve Statoil, Norsk Hydro merger". Retrieved 2007-06-20.
{{cite web}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ StatoilHydro (2007-10). "Top 20 shareholders". Retrieved 2007-10-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ [1]
- ^ Wall Street Journal (2006-12-19). "Statoil, Norsk Hydro Create an Energy Behemoth". Retrieved 2007-06-20.
- ^ "Annual general meeting held in StatoilHydro ASA" (Press release). Hugin. 19 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
- ^ RTÉ. "Three held at Bellanaboy protest (2007-11-9)". Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ RTÉ. "Protest at site of Corrib gas terminal(2007-07-13)". Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ RTÉ. "Five Corrib protestors charged after demo(2007-06-05)". Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ BBC Northern Ireland. "Breakthrough in Shell gas dispute (2008-04-26)". Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ Statoil, Shell shelve Draugen field CO2 injection | Environment | Reuters
- ^ Madslien, Jorn (5 June 2009). "Floating wind turbine launched". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ "Hywind floating wind turbine". StatoilHydro. 2009-05-15. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ Patel, Prachi (2009-06-22). "Floating Wind Turbines to Be Tested". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
External links
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