StatoilHydro Profit Falls on Lower Oil Prices

February 17, 2009

OSLO — State-controlled Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro (STO Quote – Cramer on STO – Stock Picks) reported Tuesday (Feb. 17) a 68% decline in fourth-quarter profits because of lower crude oil prices and higher taxes.

StatoilHydro said net profit for the October through December period was 2.0 billion kroner ($298 million) compared with 6.2 billion kroner for the same quarter of 2007.

The company said oil and natural gas production for the year as a whole increased 5% to an average of 1.925 million barrels of oil equivalents a day. Oil equivalents measure the energy content rather than volume of oil and gas.

“We have delivered record production and carried out our most active exploration program ever. In 2008 we put 12 new fields on stream,” said CEO Helge Lund.

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