The quarterly result was mainly affected by a 31% drop in oil prices and a 32% decrease in the average price of natural gas.

Adjusted earnings in the third quarter 2009 were NOK 31.2 billion.

Net income in the third quarter of 2009 was NOK 6.6 billion and was mostly influenced by lower crude oil and gas prices and a gain on financial items.

Adjusted earnings after tax was NOK 9.3 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Adjusted earnings after tax excludes the effect of tax on net financial items, and represents an effective adjusted tax rate of 70% in the third quarter of 2009.

"Statoil delivers solid financial and operational results and continues to maintain a high activity level both in Norway and internationally. We have increased our equity production to 1,87 million barrels of oil equivalents per day, up eight per cent from third quarter 2008. Our operations outside of Norway contributed with more than 500,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day," says Statoil's chief executive Helge Lund.