Marit Arnstad News

Marit Arnstad has announced that she will resign from her position as deputy chair and member of the board of directors in Statoil ASA (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO) effective immediately.   The nomination committee in Statoil will start its search for a new board member, and the corporate assembly will make a by-election when the nomination committee's recommendation is ready. Olaug Svarva is chair of the nomination committee in Statoil.

Norway, shocked by a collapse in oil prices last year to below $10 per barrel, has lifted contacts with other crude producing countries to unprecedented levels, Deputy Oil Minister Erling Grimstad said. He said close contacts with producer nations, including members of OPEC, would continue even though prices have more than doubled to above $23 per barrel. But Norway has no plans for formal participation in OPEC. "Norway, after the price collapse in 1998, intensified contact with OPEC and other oil producing countries...During that period we have had closer cooperation and contact than we have had at previous times," Grimstad said. "We will continue to have close cooperation with oil producing countries...we see this as in our best interests.

Aker Maritime ASA's parent company, Aker RGI, has halted plans announced earlier in the year to sell the company. Aker RGI, which holds 63 percent of Aker Maritime, said earlier this year that it was in talks to merge or form an alliance for the company. "The process linked to a possible sale of Aker RGI's shares in Aker Maritime is now ended," a spokesman for Aker Maritime said. He added that Aker is continuing to develop strategy to both improve operations and find a good industrial solution, which could include moving into oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Norway's offshore industry has been hit by a downturn in investment in oil and gas projects following a plunge in oil prices last year.

Norway, keeping in step with OPEC, will extend a 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) curb to oil output to the end of the first quarter of next year. Norway's Oil and Energy Ministry said it was extending the cuts beyond December 31 even though oil prices have more than doubled since late 1998. "Norway's oil production will be reduced by 200,000 barrels per day in the first quarter 2000," it said in a statement. Norway produces about 3.0 million bpd and is one of the world's top exporters behind Saudi Arabia. It first introduced a restriction of 100,000 bpd in May 1998 and doubled the cut to 200,000 bpd from April 1, 1999. Both OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers implemented production curbs after oil prices fell to historic lows below $10 per barrel. Prices have since recovered back to around $25.