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Norway's Statoil to shrug off 50-year oil legacy with new name
Norway’s state oil company is hoping to distance itself from its fossil fuel legacy by removing “oil” from its name after half a century as part of a major rebrand.
Statoil has already won the approval of its biggest shareholder, the Norwegian government, and expects to finalise “Equinor” as its new name following a shareholder vote at its annual general meeting in May.
The name Equinor was created by combining the prefix to words such as equal, equality and equilibrium, with “nor” to reflect the group’s Norwegian origin.
Statoil said in a statement that the name change supports its strategy and evolution from oil company to a broader energy company.
“The world is changing, and so is Statoil,” the firm's chairman Jon Erik Reinhardsen said.
“The biggest transition our modern-day energy systems have ever seen is underway, and we aim to be at the forefront of this development. Our strategy remains firm. The name Equinor reflects ongoing changes and supports the always safe, high value and low carbon strategy we outlined last year,” he added.
The move has emerged following growing evidence that the oil and gas sector may struggle to recruit fresh talent as younger graduates opt for jobs in low carbon sectors.
A workforce report by oil analysts at McKinsey estimates that “millennials” will make up more than half of the developed world’s workforce by the early 2020s “and, currently, they do not see the oil and gas industry as attractive”.
The report found that 14pc of millennials said they would not consider working for oil and gas companies – a higher percentage than for any other industry.
Statoil plans to advance its low carbon position by developing a “material” presence within profitable renewable energy, and expects to invest 15-20pc of its total spending in new energy solutions by 2030.
Statoil is not alone in its drive to reduce the "carbon-intensity" of its operations.
Fellow Scandinavian oil giant Dong Energy has recently changed its name to ‘Orsted’ after setting out plans to sell off its oil, gas and assets to focus on building giant offshore wind turbines.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, has also signalled that it may turn its back on oil and gas investments to cut its exposure to fossil fuels.
Norges Bank said in a letter to the Norwegian government that its planned oil purge “will make the government’s wealth less vulnerable to a permanent drop in oil and gas prices”.