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The Equinor / Statoil spikes have resulted in a $ 200 billion deficit. I once participated in handing over nameplates to Karl Johan to try to show how much money those huge sums really are.
We are overwhelmed by the “fantasy race” of the day:
On Tuesday, it was revealed that measurements of the concrete crown will cost Norway a staggering $ 241 billion. But stop a bit: it’s just a little more than Helge Lund and Eldar Sætre at Statoil / Equinor have managed to waste on their disastrous American initiative.
This is a transfer loss of 200 billion, according to a brilliant report in Dagens Næringsliv last Saturday.
We could also admit it immediately:
When it comes to billions, we have No The opportunity to understand what quantities really mean. We can realize that shutting Norway down for two months is a scam. But Statoil in the United States?
The first “fantasy number” with which I have a close and personal relationship is the legendary “dealer” in the late 80s. And mong corresponded to the spectacular losses at the Mongstad refinery, which at that time summarized five billion NOK
Later, the excesses would increase to six billion.
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It was photographer Jasques Hvistendahl and I who, on behalf of the Saturday newspaper in November 1987, went to Karl Johan in an attempt to show how much money a mong It really was.
Equipped with a generous stack of banknotes, solemnly approved by the editor-in-chief Arve Solstad, we delivered 100 patches east and west to the unwary citizens of Oslo, and asked:
– If we stop here and deliver a grade of 100 every 10 seconds, day and night, without a minute of rest. How long do you think we have to be here to get rid of NOK 5 billion?
Dagbladet’s facsimile on November 21, 1987, when people on the street and parliamentary representatives were asked how long it would take to distribute a mong and mongoose.
We could do something similar today, outside of the striking Equinor / Statoil headquarters in Fornebu.
Maybe we could bring in current CEO Eldar Sætre and his predecessor Helge Lund, who embarked on the American adventure that Dagens Næringsliv dedicated 16 pages to last Saturday.
Except there is now a deficit of 200 billion. That’s 40 times more than predecessor Arne Johnsen was responsible for. But that is not right, you say, we have to take inflation into account, so perhaps 200 billion does not look so bad.
But unfortunately, it gets pretty bad anyway:
According to Statistics Norway’s consumer price calculator, $ 5 billion in 1987 will equate to just under $ 11 billion in April 2020. Therefore, at today’s crown value, US losses at Lund / Sætre 18 times greater than the legendary Mongstad scandal.
It is important to note that both President Inge Johansen and Managing Director Arve Johnsen had to resign due to these excesses.
So far no one has attempted to hold Lund and Sætre accountable. We are certainly richer today. Or more blazon. Or just silly.
But let me refer some highlights from the report to Dagens Næringsliv. It is based on internal figures and audit reports, as well as interviews with some of those involved.
In a few years, Statoil invested $ 3 billion in oil and gas from oil shale in Texas and North Dakota. It was going to be an adventure, and maybe it went well. Of course, some of the losses can be explained by the fact that they got the business cycle and the oil price against them.
But as one of the auditors says:
– The first thing we noticed was that the company had big parties. Once we rented one of the largest theaters in the city and turned it into a casino.
Spending was simply out of control. Among other things, Statoil sponsored a rodeo show in Houston, but no one knew who was responsible. Therefore, one of the organizers throughout the 90 days attempted pay more, without finding the right person.
The organizer had sent Statoil a bill of $ 35,000, but had received $ 3.5 million, 100 times more than they should.
It was also at this rodeo show that Statoil, as part of a charity trick, paid over £ 700,000 for a turkey (!).
(Continue reading after the survey)
In 2012, the company signed a lease for a new 56,000-square-meter skyscraper spread over 23 floors. The price of $ 400.8 million It was one of the most expensive contracts in a million cities that year, according to the Houston Business Journal.
300 Norwegians were flown to the new US headquarters. And SAS announced a new direct route from Stavanger to Houston, where there were almost only Norwegians on board at all departures, and there all seats were business class.
Salary levels exploded and, according to auditors, Statoil was soon notorious. People could send the invoices they wanted, because Statoil lived by the motto. “Costs are what they are.” That is why Statoil overpaid to get into projects. If the projects were not successful, they paid too much to exit.
Auditors also count unknown accounts with billions, which suddenly appeared. At the Austin branch, paper checks totaled $ 27 million in drawers and cabinets.
Once they found a million dollar check that he had been lying on a chair on vacation.
But might you think this was something they kept up to date with in the United States and that it wasn’t so easy to keep track of that at the Norway headquarters?
Read more comments by Erik Stephansen
Neida, we discovered: Little by little, various reports from the auditors, with the so-called red classification, crossed the pond. Red means that both Group management and the Board’s audit committee received them and were asked to read them.
What they did to him is not so easy to be wise.
Today Equinor can represent a tax loss of NOK 200 billion after investing in the United States. Most of them, of course, must be attributed to Helge Lund, but part of the adventure continued even after Eldar Sætre took over in 2014.
For a budget hobbyist with a pocket calculator, it’s tempting to ask a few questions:
Why is the genius Helge Lund not brought home again and placed before a court of honor and asked to explain?
Why didn’t the current CEO Eldar Sætre lash out at the Oil and Energy Ministry and the Finance Ministry and the Storting and all of us and wonder how this could happen in the world?
The Mongstad overflows led to demands that the then Commander of Statoil, Arve Johansen, have to leave. The American losses for which Statoil executives are responsible today are 18 times greater.
I believe that this great loss, and the flourishing DN journalism, should not go completely unnoticed, even though Norway and the world now have their eyes fixed on the crown crisis.
It has just been revealed that our Norwegian oil company has lost NOK 200 billion, without having yet to light the torches in the Storting. At the same time, we know that Norges Bank will hire a private billionaire to manage our common oil wealth, while continuing to manage its own billions.
Do we just not understand the quantities in question? Maybe it’s time for some adults to lower their feet?
But going back to that time, when even five billion were money to count on. After all, we must reveal the answer to Karl Johan’s mong riddle at that time in 1987:
We would be there delivering dog tags for just under 16 years. Specifically, 15 years and 10 months, 12 days 53 minutes and 20 seconds.
Of course, no one was able to tip near the correct answer, so after a while photographer Jasques and I went to the Storting and repeated the question there, to the great politicians of the time: Tora Houg, Carl I Hagen, Kåre Kristiansen, Jo Benkow, Anders C. Sjaastad.
But neither were the Storting representatives particularly fortunate. They responded in hut and torment. Some suggested weeks, other months, Jan P. Syse continued for more than 100 years. But one man stood out.
Kåre Willoch (H), who returned to Storting after five years as Prime Minister:
“Let me see,” he said, throwing his head back, pouring rain, rounding up and down, and concluding: – Well, it should be about 15 years, maybe a little more?
What if Helge Lund and Eldar Sætre proved how easy it is to get rid of 200 billion?
Then they had to stand there and deliver 100 patches for over 600 years. After all, it doesn’t work, so they had to switch to 1000 patches. So 63 years would have been enough.
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