Gas majors seek more say on Norway export pipelines

By Wojciech Moskwa

OSLO, July 18 (Reuters) - Some of the world's biggest energy producers accused Norway on Friday of giving its own companies too much say in running Gassled, a pipeline system that carries nearly all Norwegian gas to Britain and continental Europe.

Total (TOTF.PA), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Eni (ENI.MI), Danish Dong and ConocoPhillips (COP.N) jointly complained to Norway's Petroleum and Energy Ministry about what they see as an overly dominant role of StatoilHydro (STL.OL) and state-run Petoro in Gassled.

Industry-owned Gassled supplies some 15 percent of European Union natural gas needs through a 7,800 km (4,846 mile) pipeline system across the North Sea. It is operated by Gassco.

The complaint, which seeks to gain more rights for minority investors to safeguard their interests, follows a unilateral decision by the ministry last month over how Gassled passes resolutions.

The ministry made the decision itself because Gassled shareholders failed to find a compromise in the wake of Statoil's 2007 takeover of Norsk Hydro's oil and gas assets, which effectively increased the say of Norwegian state-controlled companies.

"Majority state-owned StatoilHydro and fully state-owned Petoro together have control have about 70 percent of Gassled," an official from one of the foreign companies issuing the complaint told Reuters, under condition of anonymity.

"For the rest of the owners, it is difficult to have any influence and that is not what we are used to in Norway."

Unlike many other oil- and gas-rich countries which have succumbed to resource nationalism as energy prices soar, Norway prides itself on equal treatment of all market participants.