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Although a majority in the Conservative Party program committee wants to sell at Equinor, there are also forces that believe that it is a completely wrong signal to send the Norwegian oil giant.
Mayor Tom Georg Indrevik is on the Conservative Party’s program committee and is among the minority who do not want to sell on Equinor.
Tor Høvik
Published:
The mayor of Øygarden municipality on the outskirts of Bergen, and a member of the Conservative Party program committee, Tom Georg Indrevik, is part of the minority who does not want to sell themselves on Equinor, as the majority on the committee wants.
– I think you will see a very divided attitude towards this in the game, says Indrevik.
He believes Equinor should still own the state with two-thirds of the shares, and says the company is among the state’s most important tools in the green shift it is undergoing now.
– So I think it seems strange to withdraw the money to invest the funds elsewhere, says Indrevik, who is the mayor.
Oslo to the coast of Norway
Asheim told E24 on Wednesday that he is excited about how the party will receive the proposal.
– The Conservatives are not exactly a party that is in favor of the largest possible state property, he said.
Indrevik says it follows the Conservative Party line when it comes to state ownership, but that Equinor is different.
– What are the characteristics of the different fields in this debate?
– There is a cultural difference in the Conservative Party when it comes to this issue. I live in western Norway and it seems that Equinor has a completely different “position” here than in Oslo. The same is true of everyone who lives and works on the coast.
– wrong signal
However, Indrevik believes that the sale of Equinor shares is an important debate.
– If you start selling on Equinor, do you indicate that you think the company has had its best days?
– I think anyway that it is a completely wrong signal to send from the state that it must be a stable and long-term owner, says the mayor.
A sale of the current 70 to 50.1 percent of Equinor’s shares could mean revenue of more than NOK 92 billion for the state measured at current market value.
So far this year, the company’s market value has developed in a negative direction and is down 17.82 percent.
Asheim responds to criticism
It is not just internal that the Equinor sale proposal is unpopular, both the Labor Party and the Center Party are strongly against the proposal, and MP Espen Barth Eide (Labor Party) believes the proposal shows that conservatives they have lost faith in the company.
The vice chairman of the Conservative Party’s program committee, Henrik Asheim, does not think this is the case.
– Of course, we have not lost faith in Equinor. The Labor Party also supported the partial privatization of Equinor at the time. We just believe that it can be good to attract more owners who know the industry and who can contribute to the future development of the company.
He reiterates that the proposal is in favor of retaining the majority of the company’s shares and questions whether the company itself would prefer a clearer management by the elected representatives.
– If I had asked the group management at Equinor, I think they would also have preferred more private owners rather than clearer control from the government or the Storting.
On the criticism of the Indrevik party colleague, that the people of Oslo do not understand the importance of Equinor to the same extent as the “people of the coast”, he also shakes his head.
– I completely disagree with that, it is not that most of those who have voted for this proposal come from Oslo, but there are representatives from various parts of the country.
