Political Advantage, Political Risk: The Nascent Stage of Statoil’s International Expansion, 1978–1999

This article analyses how the dynamics between the Norwegian national oil company Statoil and its government owner gradually changed during the 1980s and 1990s, as Statoil invested in politically risky business environments outside its domicile. Yet, despite this seemingly profit-maximizing behaviour, the NOC was closely intertwined with its government owner and this owner’s pursuit of a value-based foreign policy with emphasis on support for poverty reduction, democracy, human rights and peace building. Beginning in China in the 1980s, the article follows Statoil’s investments and challenges in Nigeria and the Caucasus until the end of the 1990s. The article explores how Statoil used its close association to the Norwegian state to both gain market access and to mitigate its associated risk. It observes how Statoil gradually moved from instructed agent to instructor of its government owner, and illustrates the background to which the company, through its investment policy, created a fait accompli for fully fledged privatization and stock market listing in 2001. By using Statoil as a case study, the article hopes to contribute to a deeper understanding of the emergence of different varieties of the international national oil company or “INOC”.