Roughly 85 per cent of the parent company's 9,000 employees completed the IT step programme by the 1 July deadline.
This followed a considerable last-minute rush during the final two months of the two-year information technology training scheme, reports project manager Rune Berggren.
Roughly half of the signed-up employees were finished by the beginning of May. But a publicity campaign towards the end of the programme appears to have concentrated people's minds, and Mr Berggren is very satisfied with the ultimate result.
The programme required personnel to complete a number of training modules on a home PC in order to strengthen their IT skills.
At present, about 350 employees have been allowed to postpone completion of the IT step. Mr Berggren also hopes that the remaining 15 per cent who have yet to finish will do so by the end of this year.
The deadline to join the programme was 30 June, and new participants have until 31 December to complete the training.
Roughly 14,500 employees in 28 countries signed up to the IT step. The various Statoil subsidiaries have their own procedures for following up their participants.
The group's 1997 offer to supply employees with a home PC and an internet connection in exchange for tackling an IT training programme attracted attention both nationally and internationally. A number of companies have since launched similar schemes.