The Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has described the merger between oil giants Hydro and Statoil as “the start of a new era”. The start, perhaps, but it is also the end of a long process that has required the blessing of both the European Union, which approved the deal on 03 May this year, and the Norwegian Parliament, which completed its own scrutiny on 08 June. By the time StatoilHydro came into being on 01 October, the global petroleum industry was well aware of just how impressive this new giant would come to be.