LONDON�E-commerce expanded its role in the oil and gas industry's supply chain yesterday with Norwegian state oil company Statoil AS announcing it had taken a 4% share in a new electronic procurement marketplace called Trade-Ranger. Statoil said it was committed to investing close to 40 million kroner in the e-business venture, which has the backing of 14 energy and petrochemical companies.
Trade-Ranger, formerly known as the Energy & Petrochemical Exchange, is an e-procurement hub that will be used to buy and sell goods and services from "screws to modules" for development and operation, according to Kristian Hausken, Statoil's Vice-Pres. in charge of e-business.
Hausken added that work on the electronic product catalogue, eOil, developed jointly by Norwegian Continental Shelf operators including BP Norge AS, Norske Shell AS, TotalFinaElf Norge AS, and Phillips Petroleum Company Norway AS, as well as a number of offshore industry suppliers, would continue under the Trade-Ranger banner.
"Our efforts to develop eOil show that Norway's supply industry is well positioned to meet e-commerce challenges," suggested Hausken.
