Norway's state oil company launched the first big floating wind turbine
On 9 June 2009, Statoil towed a 120-metre wind tower out into the Amoy Fjord off Stavanger and left it bobbing in water 220 metres deep. Called Hywind, it was the world's first operational large-capacity floating wind turbine in deep water, an odd achievement for a firm built on North Sea oil.
That company began on 14 July 1972, when Norway's parliament unanimously created Den Norske Stats Oljeselskap, a limited company wholly owned by the state. The aim was to make sure Norwegians shared in the oil boom on their continental shelf and built up their own expertise rather than leaving it to foreign firms. Statoil had to consult the relevant minister on major decisions and report to parliament every year. In 1981 it became the first Norwegian company to hold operator rights on the shelf, at the Gullfaks field.
It grew into a fully integrated oil company. In the 1980s it built a chain of Statoil petrol stations, buying networks in Denmark and Sweden from Esso and later in Ireland from BP. The company was partly privatised in 2001, listed in Oslo and New York, with the state keeping most of the shares. In 2007 it merged with the oil and gas arm of Norsk Hydro, whose own history included the Oseberg field and the takeover of Saga Petroleum. The temporary name StatoilHydro lasted until 2009.
The present name arrived in 2018. Equinor joins equi, the root of words like equity, equality and equilibrium, with nor for Norway, replacing Statoil, which simply meant state oil. The Norwegian government still holds about 67 percent of the shares, managed by its petroleum and energy ministry.
Headquartered in Stavanger, Equinor now works in 36 countries and invests in renewables and lithium mining alongside petroleum. Its environmental footprint remains large: from 1988 to 2015, Statoil accounted for 0.52 percent of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: Equinor
