Statoil was incorporated as a limited liability company under the name Den norske stats oljeselskap a.s. Wholly-owned by the Norwegian State, the company's role was to be the government's commercial instrument in the development of the oil and gas industry in Norway. In 2001, the company became a public limited company listed on the Oslo and New York stock exchanges, and changed its name to Statoil ASA. On 1 October 2007, the oil and energy division of Hydro (formerly Norsk Hydro) was merged with Statoil, and the company was given the temporary name of  StatoilHydro ASA. On 1 November 2009, the company changed its name back to Statoil ASA.

We have grown in parallel with the Norwegian oil and gas industry, which dates back to the late 1960s. The commencement of our operations focused primarily on the exploration, production and development of oil and gas on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) as partner.

In the 1970s, we commenced our own operations, made important discoveries and entered into oil refining operations, which have been of great importance to the further development of the NCS.

In the 1980s, we saw substantial growth through the development of major fields on the NCS (Statfjord, Gullfaks, Oseberg, Troll and others). We also became a major player in the European gas market by securing large sales contracts for the development and operation of gas transport systems and terminals. During the same decade, we were involved in manufacturing and marketing in Scandinavia, and we established a comprehensive network of service stations.

The 1990s were characterised by substantial improvements in the production performance of our large fields, resulting from intense technological development on the NCS. We laid the base for future improvements by becoming a leading company in the fields of floating production facilities and subsea development. The company grew strongly, expanded in new product markets and increased its commitment to international exploration and production.

Since 2000, our business has grown as a result of substantial investments on the NCS and internationally. Our ability to fully realise the potential of the NCS was strengthened through the merger with Hydro's oil and gas division, which also bolstered our global competitiveness. In recent years we have taken advantage of our competence to design and manage operations that function correctly in the environments they face, in order to grow our upstream activities by means of other than traditional offshore production, for example threough the development of heavy oil and shale gas projects.

Although petroleum related activities on the NCS and internationally have formed the main part of our business, we have increasingly participated in projects focusing on other forms of energy project, such as wind power and carbon capture and storage, in anticipation of the need to expand energy production, strengthen energy security and fight adverse climate change.