Petoro - a driving force on the Norwegian continental shelf

SDFI and Petoro annual report 2013
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Directors’ report 2013

Work of the board

The board held 12 meetings in 2013. An annual meeting and work plan has been established for the board, with the emphasis on the consideration of strategy, goals, budgets and interim results. The board is concerned with overall value creation from the total portfolio, and with ensuring that the state receives its rightful share and does not get charged a larger proportion of costs than is warranted. Balanced scorecards are a key instrument used by the board in following up the company’s results, and it measures the results achieved against established commercial and organisational goals. 
    
The board considers major investment decisions in the portfolio as well as following up and considering the commercial business, including monitoring Statoil’s duties under the marketing and sale instruction. It also monitors the company’s overall risk picture. The board ensures that control systems have been established and that the business is conducted in compliance with the company’s values base and guidelines on business ethics.
    
 
The board has maintained the practice of allocating preparatory work related to compensation arrangements to a sub-committee. Conflicts of interest are a fixed item on the agenda at board meetings, and directors with such a conflict withdraw from the board’s consideration of the relevant issue. The board conducts an annual evaluation of its own work. That also includes the company’s guidelines on business ethics and CSR, and the instructions for the board.

Chief executive Kjell Pedersen retired on 11 June 2013. Grethe K Moen was appointed to succeed him as president and CEO, and took office on 12 June. Gunn Wærsted joined the board and Mari Thjømøe stepped down as a director during 2013.

Each director and the board as a collective body seek to strengthen their expertise in various ways. These include participation in courses and conferences and generally following developments in the area. The board conducted two strategy meetings in 2013.

Petoro’s board comprises Gunnar Berge as chair, Hilde Myrberg as deputy chair, Gunn Wærsted, Per Arvid Schøyen and Nils-Henrik M von der Fehr as the other shareholder-elected directors, and Anniken Teigen Gravem and Ragnar Sandvik as directors elected by and from among the employees.

 

Risk management and internal control

The board conducted an assessment of the risk picture in 2013 on the basis of the approved strategy, and set targets for the coming year. Measures were identified for reducing the most significant risks which Petoro has an opportunity to influence through the frameworks available to it. 
    
Several internal audit projects are approved and implemented every year. These are summed up in a report to the board and describe the checks undertaken, the findings made and measures proposed and implemented. Petoro’s internal audit function is outsourced to Deloitte, which also undertakes the internal financial audit for the SDFI.