State buys more shares in StatoilHydro
The Norwegian State will buy more shares in the oil and gas firm StatoilHydro, says Oil & Energy Minister Åslaug Haga. The goal is to boost the state’s stake in the company to 67 percent.
StatoilHydro is the biggest Oil and Gas Company currently operating offshore in the Barents Sea. The firm is the main partner in the Snohvit field outside Finnmark. Last fall StatoilHydro got a 24 percent ownership stake in the operator company for the enormous far north Shtokman field in the Russian part of the Barents Sea together with Russian Gazprom and French Total. The Norwegian state, which currently holds 62.5 percent of StatoilHydro, plans to buy shares for a total of NOK 22 billion (some 2,75 billion Euro) through its huge global pension fund, popularly known as the “Oil Fund” because it’s been fuelled by the state’s oil revenues.
