The Board of Directors of Equinor has appointed Anders Opedal as new president and CEO of Equinor from 2 November 2020. Eldar Sætre will retire after six years as CEO and more than 40 years in the company.
Jon Erik Reinhardsen, Chair of the Board of Directors in Equinor, said Equinor is entering a phase of significant change as the world needs to take more forceful action to combat climate change.
“The board’s mandate is for Anders to accelerate our development as a broad energy company and to increase value creation for our shareholders through the energy transition,” Reinhardsen said.
Opedal comes from the position as Executive Vice President Technology, Projects and Drilling. He joined Equinor as a petroleum engineer in 1997, spent many years in Drilling and Well and served as Chief Procurement Officer.
In 2011, Opedal was chosen to lead Equinor’s approximately NOK 300 billion project portfolio. He later served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer before taking the role as Senior Vice President and country manager Brazil.
Opedal holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from The Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTNU) and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
“Opedal has deep knowledge of and broad experience from the energy sector. He has risen through the ranks of Equinor and has demonstrated outstanding leadership and consistently delivered results exceeding expectations. As the first engineer to become CEO he is passionate about technology, digitalisation and industrial development. A unanimous Board is confident that Anders is the right person to further develop Equinor as a force in the green shift, and together with our dedicated people, further strengthen the company culture and our safety performance,” Reinhardsen said.
Opedal said that he is confident in Equinor’s ability to change and continue creating long-term value for shareholders also in a low carbon future.
“We have a great starting point for what will be a massive transition with our strong assets, outstanding competence, technology and innovation skills, and we have highly engaged people and strong values to guide us in this process. Together, we will accelerate the development of Equinor as a broad energy company and our growth within renewables,” he commented.
Eldar Sætre turns 65 years early next year and indicated before summer to the Board that this could be a natural point of retirement. This allowed the Board to plan a stepwise transition process to give a new CEO time to prepare for taking over the role.
Opedal will take over the position as president and CEO from 2 November and Eldar Sætre will be available to advise the new CEO until he retires from the company 1 March 2021.
Will Scargill, Managing Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData said Equinor, like other major European oil and gas companies, has made a significant strategic shift in recent months to prepare for the energy transition.
“The company committed to halving its net carbon intensity by 2050 in February and has already made significant investments in this space. Equinor currently leads the oil majors in upcoming renewables capacity, with projects already in the pipeline set to contribute around 5GW. The announcement of its new CEO’s focus on the transition suggests an ambition to continue this leadership role,” Scargill said.
“The shock to the global economy and energy markets from COVID-19 has caused a major rethink in the industry on the future of energy, as evidenced by BP’s announcement of its new Integrated Energy Company strategy. It’s likely that once the new CEO takes over, Equinor will set out further ambitions for its own strategic shift.”
GlobalData expects Equinor to continue to focus its transition strategy on areas where it can leverage expertise from its experience in the oil and gas sector.
“Equinor has focused its renewables investment on the offshore wind sector, building on its experience in offshore oil and gas operations. Areas such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage can also benefit from existing oil and gas expertise. Equinor is also leading the industry in electrification of offshore oil and gas facilities in Norway, reducing the carbon footprint of its traditional oil and gas segment,” Scargill concluded.
