FAKTA

Eksportfinans and Marathon Oil Corporation started co-operating in 2004, based on the potential for Norwegian contracts to Marathon.

The Norwegian contracts materialized , thus Eksportfinans was in June 2007 able to extend a government supported export credit of USD 577 million . Marathon Oil Company, based in Houston is the fourth largest United States-based integrated oil company and America’s fifth largest refiner. Marathon holds a 65 percent interest in, and serves as operator of the Alvheim oil field development on The Norwegian continental shelf. Marathon's partners in Alvheim are Norske ConocoPhillips AS (20 percent working interest) and Lundin Norway AS. First Production was reached in June 2009. The production is expected to reach 75 000 barells a day (together with the Vinje field) in the near future.

The Eksportfinans loan was tied to the Norwegian deliveries that were made from the Norwegian exporters to the floating production unit Alvheim FPSO (a FPSO is a floating production storage and offloading unit). Main suppliers were Norwegian companies or companies with considerable presence in Norway such as Aible, Aker Sub Sea, APL and Technip Norway. The Alvheim FPSO takes advantage of the latest technology for low emission gas turbines - a first for the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The total Norwegian export to the project was more than USD 1,5 billion. The loan, which was Eksportfinans’ biggest when it was disbursed in 2007, and is still among the biggest, was arranged by Eksportfinans in cooperation with DnBNOR bank and is fully guaranteed by GIEK which is the Norwegian Guarantee Institute for Export Credits together with DnBNOR and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.