Sætre to continue as Statoil CEO beyond retirement age

Statoil’s chief executive Eldar Sætre has agreed to continue in his position after he turns 62 in February next year, waving his right to retire at the age of 62. 

Commenting on the decision made by the company board and Eldar Sætre, the BoD chairman Jon Erik Reinhardsensaid that Sætre “led the company through a challenging period for the industry, making Statoil a stronger company.”

Sætre was appointed chief executive on February 4, 2015, after being acting CEO since 2014.

Under his individual pension agreement, Sætre had the right to retire at the age of 62, after just three years as chief executive. At that time, an element of his fixed pay was therefore excluded from his pensionable earnings.

Now that there is an agreement to a longer timeframe, the board has decided to revert to the original provision of pension being calculated on total fixed pay. The fixed pay element, which today represents around NOK 2.4 million ($301,000), will thus be included in the pension-qualifying income.

Sætre will at the latest retire when he turns 67, but he retains the right to retire at an earlier stage.

The Statoil board has for some time been reviewing the CEO’s remuneration package compared to the market. Subsequently, the board has increased the CEO’s fixed annual pay to NOK 8,767,000 ($1.1 million) effective from 1 September 2017.

1 NOK = 0.125616 USD