Statoil, like Cnooc, is majority government-owned (see Statoil: The Government Oil Play), but no politicians had made a peep about Norwegians invading the U.S. oilpatch.
In 2005 he became one of the earliest western investors to take a chance on the Kurdish oilpatch, partnering with Turkish oil company Genel to develop the supergiant Taq Taq field.