OSLO, May 4 (Reuters) – Norwegian telecom group Telenor
(TEL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted a 4.7 percent rise in core first-quarter
earnings as increased price competition in Nordic operations
took the shine off strong growth in Asian markets.

Telenor reiterated its commitment to Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on
Wednesday after it had failed to stop the Russian mobile
operator’s $6 billion purchase of Wind Telecom assets in a deal
that dilutes Telenor’s influence in the company. [ID:nLDE72G0QR]

OSLO, April 28 (Reuters) – Norway’s Sevan Marine (SEVAN.OL: Quote, Profile, Research)
finalised the initial public offering (IPO) of its oil drilling
unit at 8 crowns ($1.52) a share, less than half the price it
had hoped for and at the expense of raising money for itself.

Debt-laden Sevan Marine set the IPO price on Thursday at the
low end of a range that had been twice reduced due to poor
demand, after dropping plans to sell most of its shares in Sevan
Drilling.

OSLO/MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) – Norway’s Telenor (TEL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
may be on the brink of losing its influence over Russian mobile
operator Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as fellow leading shareholder Altimo
said it wants to scrap the company’s shareholder agreement.

The 2009 agreement, thrashed out after years of courtroom
and boardroom battles between Telenor and Russian billionaire
Mikhail Fridman’s Altimo, was designed to give Altimo and
Telenor roughly equal sway in Vimpelcom.

OSLO, April 15 (Reuters) – Norway awarded 24 oil and gas
production licenses in its 21st offshore round on Friday, with
an unprecedented focus on exploration in northern areas
including the Barents Sea region near a big new oil discovery.

Half of the licenses are in the Norwegian Sea and half in
the Barents, where this month Norwegian energy champion Statoil
(STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) announced the biggest oil find off Norway in a decade.

OSLO, April 14 (Reuters) – Norway’s Statoil (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) said on
Thursday it has made a significant new oil find near its big
Peregrino field off Brazil, where production began last week,
raising the possibility of a satellite development area.

Statoil said its drilling crew struck “a significant gross
oil column of 130 metres” in a structure called Peregrino South
near its main Peregrino centre, where it expects to produce
100,000 barrels a day in partnership with China’s Sinochem.

OSLO, April 11 (Reuters) – China’s Sinochem [SINOC.UL] is
expected to win final approval within a week for its $3 billion
purchase of a 40 percent stake in the Peregrino field off
Brazil, seller Statoil ASA (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday.

“This is something that we are firm on believing. This will
be finalised within the next week,” Peter Mellbye, Statoil’s
executive vice president responsible for development and
production outside Norway, told Reuters in a phone interview.

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway is set to launch last ditch negotiations with the European Union to amend the bloc’s postal services directive and avoid its first ever opt-out of EU rules, the prime minister said on Sunday.

Non-EU member Norway is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Schengen customs zone because it abides by EU economic rules aimed at limiting state subsidies and creating a level playing field for firms from all EU states.

OSLO, April 9 (Reuters) – Norwegian oil and gas producer
Statoil ASA (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it had stopped a gas leak from a riser
at the Visund field in the North Sea and was bringing back
evacuated personnel back to the platform on Saturday.

The incident happened a day after Statoil announced that it
was investigating internal damage to flexible risers — or the
pipes that carry oil and gas from the seabed to the platform,
and that it had shut production at Visund and the Njord field.

OSLO/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Statoil’s half-a-billion barrel oil find in the Barents Sea will shift Norway’s oil industry away from the North Sea and toward the Arctic — a harsh region where costs and technical challenges mount.

Further east, in the Russian part of the Barents, a long awaited offshore boom may also soon begin as foreign partnerships help supply knowhow to tap potentially huge resources.

OSLO (Reuters) – The number of internally displaced people worldwide reached 27.5 million in 2010, the highest number since the mid-1990s even though the situation in Africa improved, a refugee agency said on Wednesday.

While refugees who cross a country’s external border gain rights under international law, internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been forced to move due to conflict or hunger have no such rights in many countries.