Statoil removes ‘oil’ from its name to remake itself as the world’s greenest oil company

From The Wall Street Journal

Norway’s state-backed oil company Statoil AS is changing its name to Equinor, a move intended to show it is serious about a strategic shift to renewable-energy production.

Changing its name is part of Statoil’s wide-ranging effort to remake itself as the world’s greenest oil company. The company says it wants to increase its investment in renewable energy to between 15% and 20% of its total spending by 2030, up from 5% last year.

Removing the word “oil” from its name reflects the growing unease with the place of fossil-fuel production in Norway, one of the world’s largest oil producers but also among the fastest-growing centers of electric-vehicle use. The country built a $1 trillion sovereign-wealth fund and a cradle-to-grave social safety net with oil-and-gas revenue, but its government has pushed Statoil and the oil fund to look for other sources of revenue over climate-change concerns.

Statoil built Norway into an oil powerhouse, developing reserves mostly located under frigid North Sea waters discovered in the 1970s using then-cutting-edge underwater drilling techniques.

Now, the company is at the forefront of efforts by big oil companies to move away from fossil fuels and invest more in cleaner energy sources, amid growing investor pressure and a mounting debate over the future of oil demand.

The company said its new name reflects the starting point for “equal, equality and equilibrium” and the company’s Norwegian roots.

Shareholders will vote on the name change at the company’s annual meeting in May. Statoil said its biggest shareholder, the Norwegian government, would vote in favor of the plan.

The company is the biggest, though not the first, energy company to change names as part of a broader strategic shift. Last year, Denmark’s state-owned Dong Energy AS rebranded as Ørsted, abandoning links to its time as Danish Oil and Natural Gas to reflect its new role as the world’s biggest producer of offshore wind.

Historically, big oil companies’ efforts to rebrand haven’t always proved successful. BPPLC’s initiative to go Beyond Petroleum in the early 2000s fell flat when its push into renewables turned into a cash drain.

But many big oil companies are once again looking to appear sensitive to climate-change concerns, anticipating government moves to try to curb global warming and a long-term global transition away from fossil fuels.


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