Word: norwegians
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...decades, Statoil and Hydro relied on the plentiful reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf for almost all their output; last year that area off the country's north and west shores accounted for more than four-fifths of the two firms' production. That bounty has made this nation of just 4.6 million people rich. Government taxes on the country's oil business--Norway is the world's fifth largest exporter by volume--have helped bloat Norway's national pension fund to around $350 billion. But those good times couldn't last forever. With fields beginning to dry up, oil production...
...trends toward consolidation and nationalization, in fact, helped drive the Norwegian merger. To a government or national oil company looking for overseas partners to help exploit domestic resources, seeing two Norwegian firms, both largely state owned, jostling for the same openings could be "confusing," says Mellbye. "They thought there would be some political preference given from the Norwegian authorities, and then on that basis they could make a choice," he says. "But that was never done." The two companies began negotiations late last year, and when in December they brought their merger proposal to the government, it was quickly approved...
...united front won't always be enough to eclipse StatoilHydro's biggest rivals. After the megamergers of the late 1990s--such as Exxon with Mobil and BP with Amoco--the Norwegian firm ranks as only the 10th largest in the world in production. StatoilHydro might churn out 1.9 million bbl. per day, but that's less than half the daily output...
...what the Norwegian firm lacks in size, it could well make up for in expertise. Many onshore reserves, which are relatively easy to exploit, are being depleted. So Big Oil is being forced offshore into increasingly complex projects, often at great depths and in harsh conditions. "Each barrel of oil produced tomorrow contains a higher degree of R&D than a barrel produced yesterday," Reiten, a former Norwegian Minister for Petroleum and Energy, told TIME a couple of days before his resignation. With StatoilHydro's decades of experience operating in the tricky terrain and climate off Norway's coast...
...however, the company must also focus on investigating those suspect payments in Libya and limiting the damage if wrongdoing is uncovered. On Oct. 4, Hydro said it had contacted Okokrim, the Norwegian national authority that investigates economic crime, after an initial probe suggested Hydro had done more business with the consultancy than was previously thought. Packed into a room with reporters in Molde, a short drive and ferry trip from Nyhamna, StatoilHydro's new boss Lund scoffed at any talk that the revelations might disrupt the smooth integration of the two firms. "I'm the strongest guarantor for that...