In December 2008, 37% of our people were women, and 40% of the members of our board of directors were women. The proportion of female managers is 27%, and among managers under the age of 45, the proportion is 35%. Moreover, women are relatively well represented in the technical disciplines. In 2008, 25% of our staff engineers were women, and among staff engineers with up to 20 years' experience, the proportion of women is 28%. The proportion of female skilled workers in 2008 is 18%.

Our employees come from 83 countries worldwide. In December 2008, 5,88% of the people based in our StatoilHydro offices in Norway are of non-Norwegian origin, which is an increase from 5,12% in December 2007. Norwegian society is becoming increasingly multicultural, and this gives us even stronger momentum to further increase the number of people of non-Norwegian origin.

In 2008 we participated in the European benchmarking study Great Place to Work. Ninety per cent of the participants state that everyone in the company is fairly treated in the workplace regardless of ethnicity, and 83% report that everyone is fairly treated regardless of gender. Among the top 50 companies in Europe, the equivalent percentage was 97% and 93%, respectively.

We work systematically on recruitment and development programmes in order to increase the number of women in male-dominated positions and discipline areas.

The rewards system in StatoilHydro is gender neutral, meaning that men and women with the same position, experience and performance will be at the same salary levels. However, due to differences in types of positions and numbers of years' experience between women and men, some differences in compensation emerge when comparing the general wage levels of men and women. On average, the earnings of female skilled workers are 93% of the earnings of their male colleagues. There are no significant differences between the earnings of female and male staff engineers.