Statoil was proclaimed as the best oil and gas company in Europe at the Best of European Business Awards in Brussels yesterday, 22 February.
The group received this distinction due to the strong growth it has achieved through its international commitment. The jury stated that Statoil had the best balance in terms of growth, size and value creation, combined with strong ethical commitment.
"This is a significant recognition of the efforts made to develop Statoil into an internationally-competitive group," comments chief executive Helge Lund. "It is inspiring to see that this has been noted in Europe, and it shows that we also have a European profile in our main markets."
The Financial Times and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants sponsor the Best of European Business Awards. The nine companies with activities in Europe which, according to the jury, are the most competitive were honoured at a gala dinner in the Belgian capital yesterday, in the presence of a number of business leaders and representatives from the EU.
"All of our winners have a clear, specific, sustainable and consistent strategy, which aims at growing their business," said Roland Berger Strategy Consultants' chief executive Dr Burkhard Schwenker in his speech. "All of them are outstanding innovators in their field and use innovations to fulfil their strategic goals."
The aim of the competition is to highlight the success stories of companies who achieve good results with their strong leadership skills and their innovative capacities.
Last year, 6,000 companies were evaluated based on publicly-available information and a number of quantitative and qualitative criteria. A panel comprising several high-ranking European business leaders selected the winners.
The other prize winners were Audi (car-maker), Esprit (consumer goods/retail industry), UBS (financial services), Arcelor (industrials), BASF (pharma/chemicals), Telefónica (telecommunications/media), AP Møller Maersk (transport/tourism/logistics) and RWE (utilities). The British company ICI was awarded the prize for best corporate governance.