The world's leading petroleum-related companies are joining forces to launch a new electronic marketplace for procurement.
Statoil is one of the founders of this e-mart, which will support all aspects of buying and selling goods and services for petroleum exploration and production, petrochemicals, refining and retailing.
Plans call for the marketplace to be up and running in the third quarter, and an independent company being set up to establish and run it will be floated on the stock exchange.
"We're taking a stake in this company because we want to develop good procurement tools," explains Peter Tronslin, vice president for corporate procurement and industry relations. "It's important for us to have access to the best e-commerce tools."
Founding companies also include Shell, BP Amoco, Conoco, Dow Chemical, Equilon Enterprises, Motiva Enterprises, Mitsubishi Corporation, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips, Repsol YPF, Tosco, TotalFinaElf and Unocal. A number of others are expected to sign up as owners over the next few weeks.
The e-commerce solution will be based on the Commerce One MarketSite platform, which ranks among the global leaders in this area.