Statoil sells stake for €1 billion

has sold its 50 per cent holding in the

petrochemicals group to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and OMV Aktiengesellschaft, companies that currently own the other 50 per cent of Borealis. After the sale,

’s IPIC will own 65 per cent of the group and

's OMV the remaining 35 per cent.

The sale price of €920 million plus €80 million in a guaranteed dividend for 2005 – a total of €1 billion – will be paid on closing. This gives Statoil an expected book gain of approximately NOK 1.7 billion.

Borealis will remain an important partner for Statoil as its biggest customer for natural gas liquids (NGL). Long-term contracts to deliver feedstock from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) to the petrochemical plants at Bamble south of Oslo were recently concluded and renewed. These include a 10-year agreement on delivering liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) from Statoil’s Snøhvit development in the Barents Sea.

Borealis ranks today as one of the biggest petrochemical groups in Europe, primarily producing olefins and polyolefins as feedstock for plastic products. Headquartered in Denmark, the group has 4,500 employees, an annual polyolefin capacity of about 3.5 million tonnes, and production facilities in 10 countries. Total turnover in 2004 was roughly €4.6 billion.

The sale of Statoil’s holding to IPIC and OMV has been approved by the respective boards of all three companies, but is conditional on obtaining the necessary approvals in the European Union, the

and

. The transaction is expected to close by 31 December 2005.