Equinor US Hearing To Remain Open – E24

Following criticism from various quarters, the Storting’s energy and environment committee has decided that the hearing on Equinor’s activities in the US will remain open. This was stated by the Labor Party’s energy policy spokesman, Espen Barth Eide, in a press release.

The Energy and Environment Commission has made the decision to open the hearing after “having reviewed what is a precedent in similar cases,” the press release said.

– I’m glad we can now open the hearing. That is the only correct thing. It is very important that the Storting’s management review is carried out as openly as possible, and this matter is obviously in the public interest, says Eide.

– I look forward to a good and informative hearing tomorrow, which will focus on the relationship between the principal owner, the state and Equinor in the period when the warning lights began to shine around the financial management of the company’s operations in the States United, continue.

The committee decided last week to close the hearing, which was criticized by several. One of the arguments used was that information sensitive to the stock market could emerge during the hearing, which Equinor rejected to Dagens Næringsliv.

Carnegie analyst Frederik Lunde thought it was “pretty absurd with a closed audience,” DN writes. Equinor senior portfolio manager and longtime analyst Trond Omdal at Pensum Asset Management also thought it should have been fine with the opening, according to NRK.

The backdrop to the hearing is the revelations at Dagens Næringsliv that Equinor has lost huge sums of money in the United States.

A recent research report from PwC showed that between 2007 and 2019, Equinor had an accounting loss of $ 21.5 billion, or $ 161 billion, in the United States.