Statoil or Equinor: What’s in a Name?

Arve JohnsenArve Johnsen.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

Should Statoil become Equinor? Arve Johnsen, Statoil’s first CEO has issued a statement critical of the proposed name change of Statoil, vowing to mobilizes against changing the Nordic, energy giants’ name.

 

Dagens Næringsliv (DN) gives that Statoil ex-CEO Johnsen received word from Statoil informing of the proposed name change, stating; ‘I thought to myself, Is it possible to come up with a more irrelevant suggestion (than this proposed name change)?’

March 18th, the former Statoil boss sent a long email to Statoil’s sitting president Eldar Sætre, summarized by saying, ‘Statoil’s leadership must protect the company’s unblemished name.’

MONGSTAD SCANDAL
“Where have ethics gone?,” said Johnsen to DN, who himself was forced to withdraw as Statoil CEO in 1987 due to Statoil involvement with the NOK 6B Mongstad over-cost scandal.

Johnsen believes the motivation behind the proposed name change of Statoil into Equinor is to obscure Statoil being primarily state-owned and also that its almost exclusively engaged in oil & gas production.

Former Statoil CEO’s Olav Fjell & Harald Norvik declined comment of Arve Johnsen’s public statements concerning Statoil or its sitting CEO.

Statoil ASA is a multinational oil & gas company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway, and operating within 36 countries with about 20,000 employees on its roster.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today