"Statoil and Hydro acquired Saga Petroleum in 1999. DnB Markets and Morgan Stanley were Statoil's advisors in this transaction. Rolf Straume was head of DnB's advisory team.
The advisors were important both in the preparation and conduct of negotiations with Saga and for clarification of the distribution of values between Hydro and Statoil after the completion of the acquisition. This requires expertise and knowledge within the petroleum, transaction and negotiation areas. Statoil took over the main ownership and operator tasks in producing fields / fields under development in the North Sea. In retrospect, this has proven to be a commercially wise choice for Statoil. For Statoil, the result of the acquisition of Saga Petroleum, is one of the best the group has made on the upstream side.
Rolf Straume emerged as an insightful and customer focused consultant with thorough preparation and wise negotiation arrangements. By his integrity and cooperation capability, he contributed greatly to a good result for Statoil as principal."