STAVANGER, Norway, Aug 29 (Reuters)– John Knight, Statoil’s exec vice-president for international technique as well as service growth, informed Reuters on the sidelines of the ONS oil meeting in Stavanger, Norway on Monday:

** “Absolutely, I think there are loads of deals out there,” he claimed when asked whether he anticipates even more bargains showing up

** Says: “If you look at the acquisition and divestment markets for upstream oil and gas on a global basis over the last five years, they have been falling to all-time lows… but there are a number of active spots, one of those is in certain parts of North American shale and you’ve seen us divesting some parts there to take advantage of that. And the other part is Norway.”

** “In the last year you’ve seen us concentrating in four areas. The first was a very complicated swap in four continents. Then we bought three partners out of Utgard at a very competitive pricing, reflecting the bottom of the cycle… Those two deals help with getting operational control and with fundamental efficiency in this low-price environment”

** The various other 2 bargains (Buying a risk in Lundin as well as expedition permit from Petrobras) are for the longer term.

** “Everything I’ve said there, involves us what I would call doubling down in places where we already have experience and where the asset quality is good or where the asset price is low, so that is what you can expect from us”

** “I won’t speculate on that but more exposure to Sverdrup is always welcome,” Knight claimed when asked whether Statoil would certainly want acquiring Maersk Oil’s risk in Sverdrup.

** Knight earlier informed the ONS oil meeting that he anticipates even more sell the Norwegian oil market like the merging in between BP’s Norwegian service which of Norwegian oil company Det norske as well as its leading proprietor, holding firm Aker, previously this year.

** Says: “And I believe that the financial character and requirements of shareholders that sit behind this sort of change will be different to some of the larger players. I think it might mean we have to think about different ways of doing tax transfers and asset deals.”

** Says: “We all have to think further about the financial structures for decommissioning and abandonment. We will have to think about more collaborative and transitional models for operatorship.”

** Says: “I think we will see more complexity in contingency structures and in payments, when assets transfers and business transfers are made.” (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche as well as Stine Jacobsen, editing and enhancing by Terje Solsvik as well as Alister Doyle)

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