In memory of Arve Johnsen

Arve Johnsen, co-founder of Carbon Limits and ICA-Finance, died on 6th December 2023.

He had been ill since August, and, as a consequence, had to close down his office at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, which was his base after he left Statoil in 1988. Arve is, of course, best known for having developed Statoil from nothing to become a major force in building the Norwegian oil and gas industry and an international company, but his interests and engagements went far beyond that.

He had a strong public service motivation and took initiatives and contributed greatly to the building of new important institutions within research, culture, public health and development assistance. As a young man, and prior to becoming the first CEO of Statoil, Arve was a deputy minister (labor party, Ministry of Industry) and his interest for political and broader societal developments remained strong throughout his life. The cooperation with continental Europe was important for him, and he was an important promoter of energy/industry and technology cooperation particularly with France and Germany.

I had the privilege of knowing and collaborating with Arve for 25 years. An important first activity was our role, through the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to help establish the Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR), to be housed in the Word Bank. We then established Carbon Limits in 2005, very much with focus on contribution to flare reduction. We were able to build a network with authorities and national oil companies in developing countries and emerging economies, very much thanks to Arve. We travelled together to many of these countries and he was met with admiration and great respect, given his role in building an effective and efficient national oil industry.  

Arve was chairing the Board of Carbon Limits for almost 15 years and played a critical role as we sailed through the ups and downs of the carbon markets and had other disruptions resulting from our persistent motivation to work in “difficult countries”. One key feature with Arve's personality was his interest in people and his ability to make contact and have good conversations with everyone he met. While the CEO at Statoil, he rarely sat down at the same table during lunch hours but moved around talking to high and low. The same with Carbon Limits, he showed a lot of interest in the life and well-being of everyone and always had time for a chat, preferably in their native language.

I had several conversations with Arve since he became ill, last time less than two weeks ago. He continued to show a keen interest in the development of Carbon Limits and ICA-Finance, and was very pleased with the success and progress of Carbon Limits and excited with the development and prospects for ICA-Finance. We talked about COP28 in Dubai and I had hoped to report back to him when back, but then he passed away before the conference was over, peacefully, in his home two months before he would have turned 90.

Torleif Haugland

Chair of the board, ICA-Finance AS