Harald Finnvik: General Manager, STATOIL IRAN a.s

Strong Position: All STATOIL activities in Norway are offshore and some in rather harsh waters. Therefore, the company has had to develop really advanced technologies in order to exploit the oil and gas resources. This has actually put STATOIL to the forefront of industry when it comes to using and applying advanced technology.
The company enjoys a particularly strong position on the Norwegian continental shelf where it is the operator of 50% of production. STATOIL’s equity production is one million barrels a day.
STATOIL bears the claim of a technology maker in sub-sea production, directional drilling and reservoir modeling. It operates more than 100 sub-sea wells in the Norwegian continental shelf.
From laying pipelines in very deep waters, to floating production and sub-sea production, the company has put a lot of focus on enhanced oil recovery. It is now tapping impressive recovery rates of 62%-68% in its biggest fields.

More and More Gas: More than 50% of STATOIL’s reserves currently include gas. As a matter of fact, the company is benefiting from its geographic proximity to a rapidly growing gas market – Europe.
Huge investments have been made over the last 15 years in order to develop gas resources in the Norwegian shelf. STATOIL has sold 70 BCM of gas per year under long-term contracts added by other short-term contracts which eventually build a supply capacity of over 100 BCM. Almost half of that volume is STATOIL’s equity gas and the remaining half is the gas owned by the Norwegian State.

Global Reach: In the last decade, STATOIL expanded its upstream activities internationally. Early in the 1990s, STATOIL became an international player and today, this company is engaged in upstream and downstream oil and gas operations of 23 countries. Some of the company’s activities are in the South China Sea, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and Western Africa. As a National Oil Company, STATOIL also sells gas on behalf of the Norwegian State. This company’s gas marketing expertise is mainly concentrated on the European continent but it is expanding beyond that.

A Handshake in Iran: “We are looking for core areas abroad where we can develop further the competencies that we have built on the Norwegian shelf, to build substantial and sustainable businesses. That is why today we are in Iran,” says STATOIL President and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Olav Fjell.
Last year, STATOIL and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a contract to cooperate in a number of fields namely: enhanced oil recovery both on a general plan and specific EOR projects, study of gas to liquids technology, and finally, getting a position in offshore development of South Pars Gas Field. Drawing on its solid technology in developing gas business, STATOIL is targeting a number of projects and studies that would help Iran produce the “fuel of the future”.
On the company’s approach toward the Iranian side STATOIL CEO remarks, “We have spent considerable efforts looking at buy-back contracts and it is our conclusion that we will be able to find a way of operating together with Iranians that will satisfy our requirements. We made a buy-back bid for South Pars and we qualified over a year ago. The final result of the bidding is to be announced by NIOC.”