Equinor has short-listed four internal candidates to succeed Chief Executive Eldar Saetre, who is likely to announce his departure within the next few months, said Reuters. The four candidates include
- Lars Christian Bacher, chief financial officer
- Irene Rummelhoff, head of midstream and marketing
- Torgrim Reitan, head of international development and production
- Anders Opedal, head of technology, projects, and drilling
Bacher previously ran the company’s international division, which did not include Equinor’s operations in the US.
According to Reuters, the candidates have been asked to present their views on how to speed up the Norwegian oil and gas group’s transformation toward becoming a greener company while preserving profitability. Norwegian business daily Dagens Naerlingsliv, which reported on the four candidates last week, said Equinor’s board could also consider external candidates.
“We do not want to comment on speculations or rumors about when Eldar Saetre will step down as CEO or about possible candidates to take over as CEO,” Equinor’s spokesman said. Opedal declined to comment. Bacher was not immediately reachable, and Reuters was unable to contact Rummelhoff or Reitan.
Saetre, 64, has led Equinor since 2014, when his predecessor Helge Lund left to assume the top job at BG Group, now part of Royal Dutch Shell. In 2018 he changed the majority state-owned company’s name from Statoil to Equinor and launched its transformation from an oil and gas firm into a “broad energy” company, promising to increase investments in renewables.
Saetre reached the retirement age of 62 in 2018, but the company’s board asked him to stay for up to 5 years.