Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB

Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB

Type	Private
Industry	Petroleum
Founded	1969
Founder	Swedish Government
Headquarters	, Sweden
Key people	Fredrik Öhrn (CEO)
Revenue	SEK 682 million (2014)
Operating income	SEK -1,258 million (2014)
Profit	SEK -1,271 million (2014)
Number of employees	45 (2014)
Website	www.svenska.com

Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB (Svenska) is a privately held Swedish oil and gas exploration and production company. Svenska operates in five countries across offshore West Africa and Northern Europe. The exploration activities are focused offshore West Africa, the North Sea as well as the Baltic region. Production comes from (2015) the Ivory Coast. In West Africa focus is on early to mid life and high-growth black oil exploration assets and production assets. In the North Sea and Norway Svenska has an established position with an attractive combination of development assets and exploration assets.

Svenska Petroleum Exploration is wholly owned by Petroswede AB, which in turn is indirectly 100% owned by Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi.

Svenska Petroleum Exploration (Svenska) dates back to 1969, when Oljeprospektering AB (OPAB ) was founded. OPAB was an initiative from the Swedish government and a number of Swedish private enterprises (AGA, Boliden, Gränges and Sydkraft) to respond to the vast potential of a growing energy market. The company’s mission was of national concern and thus sought to explore and produce hydrocarbons in Sweden. In 1973, a second initiative, Petroswede, was established. Also based on a 50/50 state-private ownership structure, Petroswede’s objective was to search for new opportunities beyond the shores of Sweden. In 1979, the state-owned refining & marketing company Svenska Petroleum acquired parts of Petroswede and launched the new company in the name of Svenska Petroleum Exploration. Svenska entered into an agreement with OPAB to operate all of its fields and take over staff and premises.

In 1986 Svenska Petroleum and Oljekonsumenternas Förbund (OK Union) merged and created OK Petroleum (OKP). In 1991 the Swedish State's interest was sold to OKP which became the sole owner of the company. In 1994 Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi acquired OKP through his investment company Moroncha Holdings and in 1996 OKP became Preem Petroleum and divested its shares in Svenska to a newly established holding company that inherited the name Petroswede (through Moroncha Holdings). OPAB became a wholly owned subsidiary of Svenska after the acquisition of Sydkraft’s shares.