Statoil

Statoil is remembered as the old name of Norway’s big oil-and-gas company, and that matters because it points straight at the offshore energy business it grew out of. By our assessment, the thing it did best was combine state-backed scale with the hard technical side of exploration and production in the North Sea. The downside is built into that kind of company: it belongs to a carbon-heavy industry, so its reputation is tied to oil prices, politics, and the long pressure on fossil fuels. In practice, the name still carries the feel of a national energy champion even though the company later moved on under a different brand. It sits in the same category as other major European energy groups, but with a distinctly Norwegian identity. The name belongs to Norway.