Statoil was the first western oil company to open a retail network in the Northwest of Russia. Since the Statoil logo first appeared in Murmansk 17 years ago, the petrol station chain has established a whole network of modern service station from the Murmansk Oblast in the north to the Leningrad and Pskov regions in the south.
Several companies in both Norway and from other countries are potential buyers when Statoil now has decided to sell its petrol stations in northern Europe, writes Aftenposten. In total there are 2323 Statoil service stations in Norway, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Oland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
The nine Statoil stations on the Kola Peninsula cumulatively serve more than 50.000 customers each week. In addition to Murmansk, Statoil has petrol stations in Severomorsk, Polyarny Zori and Monchegorsk.
Aftenposten reports that it is not year clear which companies might be interested in buying the petrol station chain. Most likely it will be established a joint-stock company and if so, Statoil might keep part of the shares in the new company.
If someone buys the entire petrol station chain, both the name and logo might disappear.
In Russia, Statoil plans to build a network of 40 stations over the next five years as earlier reported by BarentsObserver.
