Statoil Signals Greener Future with Name Change

Statoil’s Board of Directors is proposing to change the name of the company to Equinor in support of its strategy and development as a broad energy company.

The new name will be proposed to shareholders in a resolution to the Annual General Meeting on 15 May, with the Norwegian government, as a majority shareholder, supporting the proposal and voting in favor of the resolution. All the five unions organising Statoil employees – Industri Energi, SAFE, NITO, Tekna and Lederne – also support the name change, Statoil said.

“For us, this is a historic day. Statoil has for almost 50 years served us well.  Looking towards the next 50 years, reflecting on the global energy transition and how we are developing as a broad energy company, it has become natural to change our name. The name Equinor captures our heritage and values, and what we aim to be in the future,” said Statoil’s President and CEO Eldar Sætre.

According to the company, the name Equinor is formed by combining “equi”, the starting point for words like equal, equality and equilibrium, and “nor”, representing Statoil’s Norwegian origin.

“Equinor is a powerful expression of who we are, where we come from and what we aspire to be. We are a values-based company, and equality describes how we want to approach people and the societies where we operate. The Norwegian continental shelf will remain the backbone of our company, and we will use our Norwegian heritage in our positioning as we continue growing internationally within both oil, gas and renewable energy.”

In Europe, the company currently holds shares in the Arkona offshore wind farm in Germany, as well as Sheringham Shoal, Dudgeon and Dogger Bank in the UK, and is the majority owner and operator of the world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland.

In addition, the Norwegian company is participating in the first Dutch zero-subsidy tender for the Hollandse Kust Zuid I & II offshore wind project, and has recently signed an agreement with Polenergia to acquire a 50% interest in two early phase offshore wind development projects, Bałtyk Środkowy III (BSIII) and Bałtyk Środkowy II (BSII), in Poland.

In December 2016, Statoil won the New York offshore wind lease sale, agreeing to pay USD 42.5 million for rights to build an offshore wind farm, which could potentially accommodate up to 1GW of offshore wind. The company plans to sign a power purchase agreement with a U.S. utility by the end of this year.