Statoil's New Name Comes From an Oslo Vet Practice

  • Statoil to propose name change to Equinor at AGM in May
  • Norwegian company acquires name from Oslo veterinary practice
Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg
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Oil majors aren’t famed for their pranks, but Statoil ASA had analysts checking it wasn’t April Fool’s Day when it announced a new name that turned out to have been acquired from an Oslo veterinary practice specializing in horses.

“We checked the calendar,” SpareBank 1 Markets analyst Teodor Sveen Nilsen said in a note to clients. “It’s not April 1.”