Norway's Power Play

Exterior view of the sleipner natural gas and light oil offshore platform owned by Statoilhydro, Norway.

Dag Myrestrand / Statoilhydro

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Take Ormen Lange, the name of the deep-sea field 75 miles (120 km) from Nyhamna. Hover over the sea above the enormous gas reservoir, and you won't see a rig. Instead, the company overcame underwater peaks, subzero temperatures and powerful currents to build extraction installations directly on the seabed half a mile (1 km) below the surface. In a couple of hours, extracted gas reaches the Nyhamna plant, where it's processed and sent to Britain via the world's longest underwater pipeline (it's a trip that can take as little as two days). In full swing, the $9.2 billion project will pump up to one-fifth of Britain's gas. More than that, though, StatoilHydro's technological muscle on show at Ormen Lange can give it an advantage when bidding for projects in places like the Arctic, says Kjetil Bakken, an analyst at investment bank Fondsfinans in Oslo.

Such skills will come in handy elsewhere too. The group plans to build on its presence in key deepwater areas, from the Gulf of Mexico to Angola, Statoil's largest production site outside Norway. The expected result: while just 14% of the combined firms' output would have been outside Norway in 2006, that figure will rise to 25% in 2009, forecasts Carnegie's Olaisen.

For now, however, the company must also focus on investigating those suspect payments in Libya and limiting the damage if wrongdoing is uncovered. On Oct. 4, Hydro said it had contacted Okokrim, the Norwegian national authority that investigates economic crime, after an initial probe suggested Hydro had done more business with the consultancy than was previously thought. Packed into a room with reporters in Molde, a short drive and ferry trip from Nyhamna, StatoilHydro's new boss Lund scoffed at any talk that the revelations might disrupt the smooth integration of the two firms. "I'm the strongest guarantor for that," he said, shortly before heading to the Ormen Lange celebrations, "and that is my responsibility." As the head of Norway's new, next-generation energy firm, his responsibilities have only begun.