Statoil’s debt grows

StatoilStatoil.Photo: Norway Today Media

Statoil enters the New Year with rising debt, which limits its opportunities for growth. YS leader, Bjørn Asle Teige, said the company hopes to prioritize the Norwegian shelf.

In 2012, Statoil’s debt ratio (the ratio between equity and debt) was 11%. Since then, it has risen steadily until it stood at 31.2% in the second quarter of last year, reported Stavanger Aftenblad.

Professor of Petroleum Economics at the University of Stavanger, Klaus Mohn, said the higher debt ratio gave less leeway for the company.

‘This sharpens discipline within the company in a different way, and it reduces the opportunities for growth and expansion. The tendency will be to devote more resources toward mature projects, and less toward elaborate, or little intangible projects and activities’, he said.

The head of the YS-associated Statoil, Bjørn Asle Teige, will pay close attention to what is said about fine-tuning when the annual results are presented at the Capital Markets Day in London on Tuesday. He hopes the company prioritizes investing resources into Norwegian shelf projects.

‘I’m afraid that if we do not get something in Norway, so focus will be directed toward other countries once again. We want Statoil to spend more money on exploration of the Norwegian continental shelf.

We believe in the Norwegian continental shelf. Last time we looked, we found the Johan Sverdrup and Johan Castberg fields’, said Teige.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today