Today, the Gazprom Headquarters has hosted a working meeting of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Helge Lund, CEO of Statoil and Eivind Reiten, President of Hydro. The parties discussed the prospects promising for cooperation between Gazprom and the joint venture of Statoil and Hydro.

Reference:

The Kingdom of Norway is the second-largest natural gas exporter to Europe, exporting 80.9 bcm as of the end of 2005. The oil and gas share in Norway’s GDP averages 15 per cent. Norway’s major explored natural gas reserves are located in the North Sea and account for some 3.1 tcm.

A 76.3 %-state-owned vertically-integrated and multi-profile petroleum firm, Statoil is running business through 29 locations worldwide. The company counts on vast experience of operations in the Norwegian offshore and is the world’s third crude oil seller. Statoil is a major natural gas supplier to Europe.

Hydro is a large highly competitive Norwegian company producing considerable amount of oil, gas and electricity. With major production capacities located on the Norwegian continental shelf, Hydro is also engaged in hydrocarbon extraction in Canada, the Mexican Gulf, Iran and Angola.

On December 2006 Hydro and Statoil agreed on merging oil and gas business and setting up a joint venture StatoilHydro, where Hydro, Statoil will hold 32.7 and 67.3 per cent, respectively. Therefore, a 62.5 per cent stake will be owned by the state.