New top managers for Hydro's oil business

Norsk Hydro's oil and gas operations on the Norwegian continental shelf, which have grown considerably in recent years, take in operator tasks on 15 field installations producing a total of some 1.3 million barrels of oil daily. The Norwegian shelf is one of the most important factors in Hydro's development and the company has decided to intensify its concentration here by dividing administrative management into two separate divisions.

Operations and Production Norway will be responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the fields where Norsk Hydro is operator, as well for the development of these fields, their infrastructure and their installations. The division will be located in Bergen.

Exploration and Development Norway will be responsible for exploration and field development in new areas on the shelf, plus the commercial management of Hydro's total involvement in the Norwegian oil and gas sector. The division will be headquartered at
Kjørbo, Sandvika, near Oslo.

The two divisions form part of Hydro's Oil and Energy business area headed by executive vice president Tore Torvund. The area also includes the divisions Energy, Exploration and Production International as well as Oil Marketing.

Torgeir Kydland ( 44 ) has been appointed head of Operations and Production Norway. Kydland, who holds a cand. real degree from Oslo University, has been involved in the oil industry on the Norwegian shelf since 1981, first with Statoil and then, since 1984, with Hydro. He has held different management jobs in Bergen and Oslo and been part of divisional management since 1996, as senior vice president firstly for the Oseberg area and then for Troll.

Torstein Dale Sjøtveit ( 46 ) has been appointed head of Exploration and Development, Norway. An engineer by training, Sjøtveit has been associated with Hydro since 1981, first in an industrial capacity and later in the oil business. He has led Hydro's activities in connection with licence applications for blocks on the Norwegian shelf. Since 1996 Sjøtveit has been part of the divisional management of Hydro's international oil business, and has been stationed in Angola as senior vice president in charge of Hydro's extensive oil involvement on Angola's continental shelf.

Lars Bjerke (53 ), who has been in charge of Hydro's Norwegian oil operation for the past two years, has informed Hydro's management that he does not wish to continue as head of one of the two new divisions. Bjerke was deputy president of Saga Petroleum until the company was acquired by Hydro in 1999. After nearly 20 years in operative top management, he wishes now to work on other oil industry assignments. As was the case with the other Saga top managers, Bjerke was entitled to a severance agreement which he has now chosen to take up.


He will leave Hydro in the summer of 2002. Until then he will be engaged on central management tasks for the Oil and Energy area.