Equinor ASA (OSL:EQNR)

AGM 2019

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May 15, 2019

Before we start the meeting, there'll be a quick HSE review. Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Equinor Business Center. If there's a need to evacuate, we want to tell you about our rescue procedure in an emergency. If the evacuation signal is released, please leave by the emergency exits as soon as possible. We have security guards who will guide you on the way out. When you're outside the building, please disperse outside the building and you'll be given a message when things are normal again. Good luck with your AGM. Thank you. We welcome everyone to the Annual Ordinary General Meeting of Equinor ASA. Non Norwegian participants. And for those of you in this room, headsets with English translations are available. And for participant in the webcast, the meeting will be simultaneously translated to English, and we will therefore continue in Norwegian. My name is Tonne Lundebaker, Chair of the Corporate Assembly and the Nomination Committee of Equinor. As you will see from the notice convening the meeting, the Board of Equinor ASA has appointed me according to the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act, Section 512, appointed me to open today's Annual General Meeting. With me on the panel today, I have Chair of the Board of Directors, Jon Erik Reinhardsson Chief Executive Officer, Eldar Sietra General Counsel, Hans Henry Kleiman and Company Secretary and Lawyer, Guemelt Shuhica. The film you just saw reflects Equinor's strategy and process towards becoming a broad energy company adapted to future challenges and energy situations. Before we begin, I would like to ask everyone to please switch your mobile phones to silent mode. All shareholders in attendance and eligible to vote should have received ballot slips when they registered. If that is not the case, please pick up your ballot slip now. The ballot slips will be used for any written ballots. It's also been possible to vote electronically for a period of time prior to the AGM. Those who are attending the general meeting today and have already voted electronically need not vote again. In the event of any written ballot, the ballots will be tallied in an adjacent room under the scrutiny of introduce yourself by name. Shareholders may grant the right to speak on their behalf to one adviser and those who speak will be asked to kindly go to the rostrum. And for health and safety reasons, we ask you kindly to use the stairs to the left next to the rostrum. This is necessary for technical reasons, also due to the direct online webcast of the general meeting. Shareholders who submitted proposals will have up to 5 minutes to explain their motions, while others who would like the floor will have a time limit of up to 2 minutes to state their case. Such a time limit is necessary to ensure that all the shareholders who would like to participate have an opportunity to provide input. We continue now with item 2, the registration of attending shareholders and proxies. In my capacity of moderator, it's my duty under Section 513 of the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act to make a list of the shares that are legally represented at this AGM. The Secretariat is in the process of creating a list of shareholders in attendance and proxies attending on behalf of shareholders. The list will be accounted for as soon as it's completed. We continue to item 3, which is electing a chair. The Board of Directors proposes that the general meeting, myself, elects is the chair of the meeting. And can the AGM endorse this resolution? I see no objections. So the chair of the corporate assembly is elected. And we continue to item 4, which is approval of the notice and the agenda. Section 510 of the Public Limited Liability Companies outstates that the general meeting shall be convened by written notice to all shareholders with unknown address. Pursuant to Section 5 10, second subsection and 511, first subsection, first sentence, the notice of the meeting shall be sent out not later than 3 weeks prior to the meeting. The notice convening the meeting and the notice of attendance were sent to all shareholders registered in the Norwegian Central Securities Depository on the date of the notification pursuant to the deadline specified in the act. The notice, financial statements and directors report and other attachments to the notice are published on the company's website in compliance with the Public Limited Liability Companies Act, Section 511A and the company's articles of association. This thus notification has been has taken place in accordance with the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act and the provisions of the articles of association. As moderator, I propose that after the chair and the CEO's accounts linked to items 67, we will ask those who have proposals to present their proposals in sequence, that is to say item 8, 9, 10 and 19. Only when all the proposals have been introduced by the respective people putting the proposals, We will open for other comments and speeches from the floor on the 4 shareholder proposals plus items 67. The point of dealing with these items together is to maximize time efficiency. Voting will take place still in accordance with the notice of the meeting, except for item 19, where the voting follows item 10. It's only discussions that will be merged for these items. This is a method we have employed previously. The result of the written ballot will be read out after all the items have been dealt with at the AGM. Are there any comments to the notice or the proposed agenda? If not, that doesn't seem to be the case. So I hereby declare that we are legally convened and the agenda is adopted. I have now received the registration of shareholders. It's finally finished already the result. There are 104 people with voting rights here today. And with the advanced votes cast, they represent a total of 77.67 percent of the company's share capital. 70.67 percent of these people represent their own shares, while 7.18% represent proxies. Advanced votes have been cast for 0.02% of the share capital. We then continue to item 5, namely election of 2 persons to co sign the minutes together with the chair of the meeting. And we propose Johan A. Alsda, the state's representative from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and Bente Boloruk to cosign the minutes. Are there any comments to this nomination? That does not seem to be the case. And Johan Alsda and Bente Bolorub are therefore elected. The Annual General Meeting will now address Item 6 relating to the approval of the annual report and accounts as well as Q4 2018 dividends. And as mentioned earlier, the discussion related to item 7, 8, 9, 10 and 19 will be dealt with in conjunction with the discussions under item 6. The annual report and financial statements with the auditor's report and the statement of the corporate assembly have been made available on the company's website. Reading them aloud is therefore unnecessary. I now give the floor to Chair of the Board of Directors, Jon Erik Reinhardsson, who will account for the Board's view of operations and proposal for dividend item 6 and the Board's proposal for authorization to distribute dividend based on approved annual accounts for 2018, item 7 and the Board's report on corporate governance, item 11. The chair will also account for the Board's response to the 4 shareholders' proposals, namely items 8, 9, 10 and 19. And the floor will then be given to CEO, Eldar Setre. Later, under item 12 on the agenda, the chair of the board will give a separate report on the Board of Directors' proposed statement regarding remuneration for executive management. You have the floor. Thank you, Tuna. Dear co shareholders, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the Annual General Meeting of 2019. Today is precisely 1 year since the resolution to change the name of the company from Statoil to Equinor. Accordingly, I'm also welcoming you to Equinor's very first general meeting. The rationale behind the name change was clear. As the world is changing, so is the company. The most significant transition our modern day energy systems have ever seen is underway. And our company aims to be at the forefront of and to be a driver for this development. Equinor is developing into a broad energy company, producing the oil and gas that the world needs with increasingly lower emissions. We contribute towards decarbonation through CCS and development of hydrogen, while at the same time also building up a strong position in renewable energy. Equinor is already an industry leader in carbon efficient production of oil and gas. And the company's climate road map shows how this position can be strengthened further going on further. In 2018, CDP, the previous carbon disclosure project, they declared Equinor as the international oil and gas company best prepared for changes in the energy markets. At Equinor, we all have every reason to be proud of this achievement. Let me start with the most important thing, namely safety. The Board of Directors is happy to see that we continued to improve our safety performance in 2018. Last year, the serious injuries frequency was 0.5 per 1000000 working hours. In other words, the best safety performance ever achieved. This is primarily the result of excellent safety work throughout the entire organization. But we know that good safety performance must be subject to constant renewal every single day. It is therefore a clear expectation of the board that the good safety efforts continue with relentless focus. I will now account for the company's operations and activities in 2018, including the Board of Directors' report, the question of dividend, the Board's report on corporate governance and the Board's response to items 8, 9, 10 19, the shareholders' proposals. The Board of Directors declaration on remuneration for executive management will be addressed under item 12 later. In 2018, we saw a gradual rebalancing of the oil market and a strengthening of the price level. At the same time, 2018 was characterized by considerable market fluctuations. We expect and we must be prepared for continued volatility in the energy markets going forward. The company's response to this is reflected in our strategy: always safe, high value and low carbon. This implies that Equinor will develop the Norwegian continental shelf to ensure continued high value creation with increasingly lower carbon emissions. We will develop and deepen core areas of oil and gas internationally and mature new growth options. We will create a material new industrial position in renewable energy and secure access to new attractive markets and enhance value creation from midstream and marketing. The Norwegian Continental Shelf will continue to be the backbone of Equinor's activities for many years to come. In 2018, the Norwegian continental shelf accounted for approximately 60% of its production. We are working on developing some good new projects, not least the Johan Sverdrup field, which is expected to come on stream in November. We also received the approval of Phase 2 of the Johan Sverdrup project today. We expect increased production from the Norwegian Continental Shelf the next few years and will have a historically high production level in 2025 with the lowest ever carbon footprint per barrel ever. This will ensure high value creation both for the company and for the Norwegian society. In 2018, Equinor's international production was also at an all time high with 823,000 barrels produced every day. And in 2018, the company also won access to new and attractive exploration licenses, amongst others in Brazil, Canada, the U. K. And the Gulf K. In New Energy Solutions, in 2018, the company continued to develop new business opportunities in ocean wind, solar, hydrogen as well as carbon capture and storage. The development of the ocean wind farm are Kona in Germany, the acquisition of 3 early phase ocean wind projects in Poland maturing further wind projects off the coast of New York as well as the acquisition of a minority share in Skatek. Solar ASA are just some of the initiatives taken in 2018. In 2018, Equinor also announced the acquisition of Danske Commodities, a transaction which was finalized at the beginning of 2019. This will all strengthen the company's capabilities for creating value from existing and future production of renewable energy in a growing energy market. In total, this made 2018 a good year for Equinor. The financial performance builds on the improvement efforts undertaken during the past few years. Adjusted earnings were US18 $1,000,000,000 before tax, up from US12.6 billion dollars in 2017. Equinor delivered adjusted earnings after tax of $6,700,000,000 for 2018. The company also increased production, while at the same time delivering our strongest ever reserve replacement ratio in 2018. The reserves to production ratio is now almost 9 years. In recent years, we've also improved our project portfolio substantially, and this is a great promise for the future. The Board of Directors is focused on the need for improvement efforts to continue. Even if prices have strengthened and the company now has a solid financial position, it needs to maintain its competitive edge and ensure high value creation and new activities going forward. The company's dividend policy is to grow dividend cash dividend in line with long term underlying earnings. The dividend resolutions for the Q1 to Q3 have been resolved by the Board based on an authorization provided by the general meeting. The general meeting hereby approves the Q4 and thus the year as a whole as proposed by the Board. The Board's recommendation is based on prospective future earnings, expected cash flow, investment plans, financing needs and required financial flexibility. For the Q4 2018, the Board proposes a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, an increase of 13% and in alignment with our dividend policy, as I mentioned earlier. As in previous years, the Board will propose that the general meeting provides an authorization to the Board of Directors to resolve the payments of quarterly dividends until the next ordinary general meeting. And here, I refer to item 7. Let me now also account for the Board of Directors' work in 2018. Equinor's corporate governance is based on transparency and equal treatment of all our shareholders. The board's mandate is to create long term added value for the shareholders. We are to take into account the company's other stakeholders and safeguard the interest of our community and society. The board works to maintain high standards for corporate governance based on Norwegian and international standards for best practice. The Board shall be independent and focus on preventing conflict of interest between shareholders, the Board of Directors and the executive management of the company. The Board regularly visits Equinor's activities and offices in Norway and abroad. We do this among other things to gain more insight into and knowledge about safety and security in the company's operational activities. In 2018, the whole or parts of the board visited activities in Norway, the United States, Russia and the U. K. In 2018, the Board had a total of 8 ordinary and 3 extraordinary board meetings with an average attendance of more than 95%. Shareholders have submitted 4 items to the Annual General Meeting. The proposals concern the way the company works to face the climate challenge. Equinor supports the goals of the POWS agreement and fully recognizes that Equinor and the industry must contribute towards achieving the target set. Climate is an integrated part of Equinor strategy, and the company's ambition is to maintain its position as an industry leader in carbon efficiency. During this spring, the company has been in dialogue with investors who participate in Climate Action 100 plus This is a global investors initiative of more than 320 investors of whom many also have substantial investments stakes in Equinor. In a joint statement with them, the company has committed to taking new steps to further strengthen its climate leadership. Like I said initially, we are in the process of developing to become a broad energy company. And the Board of Directors believes that the company's low carbon strategy is a competitive advantage, which creates long term value for our shareholders. The initiatives we announced jointly with Climate Action 100 plus will enhance our competitiveness in the energy transition. The board has followed the dialogue closely and we're happy to see such constructive engagement among our investments. Next, I move to the concrete emotions received. The Board's response to each proposal is evident from the ATM documents. Items 8 and 10 concern the company's exploration activities. Item 8 proposes to refrain from oil and gas activities in what the shareholder refers to as frontier areas, immature areas and areas of high ecological value and sensitivity. Amongst others, the shareholder includes the Great Australian Bight and the Barents Sea in such areas. In Item 10, a shareholder proposes to submit a new strategy, which among other things implies a full abandonment of all exploration activities by 2021. There will be a considerable future need for oil and gas even within the framework of the Paris Agreement. And with declining production from existing oil and gas fields, The world is dependent on new energy resources being brought to the market. Not least, this is a prerequisite for an increasing number of countries and people being brought out of poverty. Equinor is focused on assuring that this happens in the most sustainable manner among other things by gas replacing coal and by producing oil and gas with the lowest possible greenhouse gas emissions. Our purpose is to change energy resources to sustainable developments for society and people. The Great Australian Bight is one such area where the industry has previously drilled several exploration wells. Equinor's exploration wells are well within the framework of what we do in other areas. Actually, there are many common features with the Great Australian Bight and the Norwegian Sea. We believe that Equinor's environment plan shows that the exploration activities can be undertaken in a safe and environmentally responsible way. It is up to Australia's independent regulators to assess this plan before any activity can start up. In the Barents Sea, the Equinor has drilled a number of exploration wells and made value made several valuable discoveries. All Equinor exploration activities are subject to thorough risk analysis and planning. The goal is to ensure that exploration is carried out safely and with a minimum environmental impact as well as ensuring that it creates value for shareholders and society at large while having the lowest possible carbon footprint. The board believes that Equinor has robust processes in place to ensure that such operations are carried out in the best possible way. The board also attaches weight to complying with the principles for good corporate governance, according to which it is the responsibility of the board to make decisions regarding company strategy. And based on the that direct us recommends the general meeting to vote against the proposal in items 8 and 10. Item 9 concerns a proposal from a shareholder to set quantitative targets, which include Scope 1, 2 and 3 for greenhouse gas emissions. Equinor is already reporting emissions linked to the production in scope 1 and 2 areas. Equinor also reports estimated emissions linked with the use of our products in the joint statement with Climate Action 100 plus. We commit to also report on emissions intensity for the energy products and services we deliver. That means including Scope 3. The company is actively working to help society in its tradition and transition towards a low carbon society. We do this through various projects, carbon capture and storage, investments in hydrogen, investments in new technology and renewables. We also plan on investing in natural storage of greenhouse gases through our support to efforts to preserve the tropical rainforest. In addition to this, we actively support carbon pricing. The polluter pays and is responsible for their own emissions is a key principle of the Paris Agreement and is also a prerequisite for reaching the climate targets. And we will never be successful unless all parts of the value change, assume direct responsibilities for all everything they can impact themselves. Consequently, the Board believes that it is a more meaningful way of contributing to do what we can rather than by setting a goal for something beyond our control. And consequently, the Board of Directors recommends the general meeting to vote against the proposal in item 9. Item 19 concerns a motion from a shareholder for all Equinor's efforts within carbon capture and storage to be immediately abandoned. Among other things, the shareholder submitting the motion believes that climate focus on human induced CO2 most probably is a dead end and that there is no reason why Norway in general and Equinor in particular should be at the forefront of the climate battle. The Board disagrees with this position. Like we I said, Equinor supports the goals of the Paris Agreement, securing access for all to affordable energy, while at the same time delivering on our climate targets is a societal challenge where authorities, investors, companies and consumers have an important role to play including Equinor. Carbon capture and storage is particularly important in this context. The board is also focused on ensuring compliance with the principles for good corporate governance. And it is the board's responsibility to decide on the company's item 19. And next, my summing up, to shareholders, this company is well prepared for the future. The company is positioned with the competency, capacity and leadership capabilities necessary to create new business opportunities and long term value for our shareholders. I would like to thank all employees for their dedication and commitment. It is the expertise and knowledge of the employees which will enable us to realize our goals. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would also like to thank the company's corporate executive team and especially CEO, Eldar Sertre, for its good value adding collaboration and a job well done in the past year. And with these words, I give the floor to the Chief Executive Officer, and thank you for your attention. Thank you, Yon Erik. Dear co shareholders, it feels very good to meet you again for this year's AGM. As Jon Erik mentioned, 2018 was a very special year for all of us. After nearly 50 years of Statoil, we changed our name to Equinor, a change that reflects our strategy and our development towards a broad energy company. But 2018 was a fairly eventful year in other ways. We constantly develop our portfolio of projects, both in Norway and internationally. We have made several commercial discoveries, and we have got a number of new exploration licenses, both on the Norwegian Shelf and outside Norway. And we have strengthened our position within renewables, among other things, through expansion within electricity trading. In brief, we're a company constantly developing. And today, I want to spend my time on some reflections around the markets we operate in before I comment on the company's financial performance during the last year. And I'll say something about our portfolio of projects. And finally, I'll give you some of my reflections on the most important change in our industry, the energy shift, which is crucial in order to support a future low carbon society. But let me start as well with safety. The safety of our employees and all those who work for us is our topmost priority. That's why we were very happy in 2018 to achieve our best safety results ever. It shows that working holistically in a goal oriented way and systematically over a period of time pays off. Last year, the frequency of serious incidents was 0.5, which was down from 0.6 the year before and 0.8 in 2016. Total recorded injury frequency was 2.8%, which is the same level we had back in 2017, while the number of oil and gas leaks was considerably reduced from 2017 to 2018. Safety is something we have to work on every day. And good results, 1st of all and foremost, inspires us to keep working on it, to make expectations more visible, to have better learning procedures so we can learn from incidents and even clearer management of safety. These are important elements in our continued improvement work and this is what we call safety beyond 2020, which is our corporate project. Safety is the responsibility of managers more than anything, and it starts with me. But it's also responsibility for each employee and everyone who works for the company to safeguard your own safety and the safety of others. We wholly depend on a strong and pervasive safety culture, and Equinor should always be a leading corporation when it comes to safety. Let me then say a few words about how our markets are looking. Even if we now experience a somewhat weaker global economic growth period, we still see an increase in the demand for our products, especially this applies to oil, with an ongoing annual growth around 1.5%. The growth in the global demand for gas has leveled out somewhat recently, mostly because of warmer winters, warmer weather, both in Europe and Asia, combined with a somewhat weaker economic trend. But the long term demand trend for gas is nevertheless clearly positive. Our markets are characterized by being cyclic fundamentally and we saw that clearly last year when we started with, petroleum price of $66 per barrel, reached a peak of $86 in October and finished at less than $55 per barrel, a reduction in fact of 40% during 3 months only. In future, we therefore expect continued fluctuating market prices where some of the most important factors will be the growth in the production of shale oil in the United States, which doesn't seem to be slowing down in the short term. Ongoing political uncertainty linked, among other places, to Venezuela, Iran and Libya. General uncertainty about the effects of protectionism and disagreement on the general terms and conditions of international trade plus OPEC and Russia's interventions to get a better balance between supply and demand. And as a long term industry, this kind of uncertainty is something we simply have to live with. It's a constant, more or less, And it's the most important driver behind us now developing a portfolio of projects that are robust and can stand oil prices way below US50 dollars per barrel. Let me then go on with the financial performance in 2018. And the headlines are as follows: a sound performance and a strong cash flow, good consistent operations, high production and increased yield and a record high reserve replacement ratio. The adjusted earnings for 2018, as I've already mentioned, ended up at US18 $1,000,000,000 pretax and US6.7 billion dollars after tax, which is up from EUR4.5 billion the previous year in 2017. The net operating income according to IFRS was at EUR 20,100,000,000 and the annual income was corresponding to $7,500,000,000 up from $4,600,000,000 the year before. With an average Brent oil price at $70 plus per barrel, we created what we call a free cash flow in 2018 after tax, after dividend, after all kinds of investments of $3,100,000,000 And this contributed of course to reducing the debt equity ratio of the company from 29% to 22.2% during the year. The organic investments, as we call them, were $9,900,000,000 and we paid around $9,000,000,000 also in taxes. In 2018, Equinor also delivered a record high production of oil and gas with 2,111,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. And at the same time, the so called reserve replacement rate was the highest ever at 2 13%. And I would like to say a little bit about our climate performance. In 2017, we established our own and our first so called climate roadmap, which shows how going on the offensive when it comes to low carbon solutions, we can get an ever more important competitive advantage through ambitious goals and not least specific action. In 2018, we carried out measures that give annual reductions in emissions of 264,000 tons of carbon. And we have now achieved 600,000 of the goal of 3,000,000 carbon dioxide reductions per year within 2,030. On average, the carbon dioxide intensity for Equinor's own operated portfolio, it was 9 kilograms per barrel last year, which corresponds to approximately half the global average for the industry. And our goal is 8 kilograms of carbon emissions per barrel by 2,030. Let me mention that the renewables activity that we had last year delivered 1.3 terawatt hours of energy to the power grid. And this number will grow as we continue our investments in renewable energy related risk. Our reporting routines are in accordance with the recommendations issued in 2017 by the so called TCFD, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures. In this connection, I'm also very glad to say that recently we were able to publish a joint statement with the Investor Group Climate Action 100 plus which, among other things, entails making climate risk even more visible in relation to our activity and strengthening our work to support the Paris agreement. And this declaration fits very well with our low carbon strategy, and the measures described in the declaration will make us even more competitive in the energy shift. We continue also to improve our portfolio of new development projects, new projects. During 2018, we approved 7 new projects. They will supply more than 1,000,000,000 barrels of oil equivalents to Equinor. And then average equilibrium price around $14 and carbon emissions under 1 kilogram per barrel. The total portfolio of projects that are expected to start producing by 2025 constitutes around 6,000,000,000 barrels of oil equivalents for Equinor. And we have an economic equilibrium price around $30 per barrel, which points to an continued strong cash flow and high yield. Equinor also continued investing in and working on projects within renewable energy in 2018 and started production from our 1st solar energy project, Apodi, in Brazil and the offshore wind project, Alcona, in Germany. Talking of projects, it's natural to highlight Johan Sverdrup as our flagship. It's a project in the very best of world class projects. And investments have been further reduced, but the estimates for resources have been adjusted upwards and the equilibrium price for Phase 1 of the project is now around $15 per barrel. And it's less than $20 per barrel for the whole project, which includes Phase 2. Johan Sverdrup, this project is now in an intensive phase with extensive offshore activity, and production is expected to start in November this year. Last year, we also presented an ambitious road map for the Norwegian Shelf to ensure high and safe activity and maximum wealth creation and the smallest possible carbon footprint in a long term perspective. And we carried out a lot of acquisitions internationally. For instance, 40% of the deep sea discovery North Platte in the Gulf of Mexico and an operator stake of 40% in the Rosebank project on the British Shelf. In addition, we have strengthened our position in Brazil further, while we're also preparing for becoming an operator to a greater extent outside Norway as well. I would also like to reflect on digitalization and the possibilities entailed there for the company and our industry. As a technology and knowledge driven company, we invest now in a number a long row of new digital solutions that can reduce the costs considerably for new developments and increase our efficiency in production and drilling and also improve the discovery rates and production rates and not least contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improve safety. We find these to be very important measures to maintain our competitive edge in future. And this is why it's our clear ambition to be a leading company also within digitalization. And we have come quite a bit of the way. Last year, we opened both an integrated operations center and a geo operations center on the Norwegian shelf. The integrated operations center will, through extensive use of data and technology, contribute to increasing production efficiency and potential and the energy efficiency on fields that we operate on the Norwegian Shelf. And the GEO Operations Center will ensure better follow-up of ongoing drilling activities, which were additionally done on offshore installations and in various offices. Through this integrated operations center, we have an ambition to increase wealth creation from existing fields in production corresponding to $2,000,000,000 by 2025. We also believe that fields in the future increasingly will be located on the seabed and that they'll also be is lighter and, to a greater extent, unmanned, robotized, remotely operated and standardized, not least, overall. And if you compare such futuristic solutions with conventional concepts that we are using today, we believe that it should be possible to halve the operating costs and reduce investments by at least 30%. Let me move on now to the ongoing energy shift and what this means to Equinor. 2 years ago, we launched our strategy, safe operations, high wealth creation and low emissions. And I feel that this strategy is well adapted to our markets, to our surroundings and to our ambitions. And the whole organization is working in accordance with this now. And when it comes to the climate challenges, I want to stress the following: Equinor has a clear ambition of contributing to a shift towards a low emission society. And if the world does not get an efficient handle on this now to reduce the greenhouse emissions, This will have grave consequences, which is also being documented more and more often. So we support therefore, we support the Paris Agreement and the goals of the agreement and our strategy supports this agreement. But we also recognize that the world is lagging behind when it comes to achieving these new goals. This is why action is called for, action now. That's what is required. But we're also faced with more than one challenge at the same time. The world must ensure access to energy for a growing population, while at the same time, we need to reduce the global emissions. So we know that there are no simple solutions and there's no single solution. And there's not one response, but many responses to this challenge. The whole toolbox must be put to use, in fact. And we must not let perfectionism stand in the way of good solutions. We have we can't afford that time wise or money wise. We know that the energy mix needs to be changed fundamentally over time. But we also need to bear in mind and recognize that fossil fuels fossil energy will still constitutes more than 80% of the energy demand in the world and that our energy systems are complex, that they actually grow all the time and that the capital in the systems, that capital has a long life cycle. That's why it will take time to implement such fundamental energy shifts. But it is urgent and there's a lot we can do. And the first and the most effective and available measure globally is to replace coal with renewable energy and natural gas here and now. And the other thing that will become important is how we produce oil and gas, which will actually be needed for a long time still with the smallest possible carbon footprint and the highest possible energy efficiency. And thirdly, we have to invest massively in renewable energy. And finally, we also have to use powerful measures to decarbonize oil and gas through CCNS and not least use hydrogen as an energy carrier. This shift may by some be seen as a threat, especially against our industry. But we, Equinor, we have elected to see this as a business opportunity and we see it as an opportunity both within and outside oil and gas. We turn it around. So we want to take an active part in the energy shift, both in the short and long term and make this at the same time, make this a competitive advantage for the company. So let me summarize at the end a little bit. Today, Equinor is in a strong position in many areas. We have strengthened our competitiveness. We have improved our project portfolio. And we have a clear strategy for further development of the company. We have positioned ourselves for long term wealth creation for the shareholders and for competitiveness in a low carbon future as well. And the performance in 2018 confirms that we're on track, both with our ambitions for increased yield and a high cash flow from operations in the years to come. Last of all, I want to thank all our colleagues, and I see many of them here today, for the effort they invest every day in our company. Equinor has very competent, very devoted and very hardworking many very hardworking employees, which makes me a proud CEO. I want to warmly thank the Board of Directors, not least the Chair of the Board, for a good and trusting cooperation between us. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much for both these presentations. This brings us to the discussion of Item 8, a proposal put forward by 2 shareholders. The proposal under Item 8 was distributed with a notice of the meeting and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. And I give the floor to the shareholders who submitted the proposal who will have 5 minutes for his presentations. And we will revert to any comments regarding Item 8 and the vote on this motion. Thank you very much for the opportunity to represent. My name is Angel Vogor, and I'm a Senior Energy Advisor of World Mailafan, and this is Martin of Greenpeace Norway. We propose that Equinor must refrain from oil and gas exploration and not move into immature areas and particularly sensitive areas. The reason for this is that scientists now say loudly that the climate and nature are in crisis. Equinor say that they are at road still. They have gone from being an oil and gas company to an energy company. I attended your autumn conference, and I believe you when you say that you are serious about climate. And I heard CEO, Eldar Sietra, and I believe you. But of course, money follow the product stream. And if you look at the financial statements, the CapEx in New Solutions are too small, it doesn't show and that is not credible. We need to put down the foot somewhere for where Equinor should be allowed to invest in. We think that you should also start the most vulnerable areas and frontier areas and sensitive areas. Dear General Meeting, it's nice to be here again. And when I was on the train yesterday, this is my 10th general meeting. It doesn't feel very long. And maybe that is also part of the problem. We only have 10 years to cut the global CO2 emissions by 50%. I fully agree with the reality presented both by the Chair of the Board of Directors and by Eldar. We face many problems and great challenges, and there is not only one solution going forward. We need to use all the tools in our toolbox in order to deal with the challenges. One of them, we believe, is to refrain from opening or from drilling or investing in certain areas that may be opening new areas or moving further north in the Arctic or particularly vulnerable areas or sensitive areas in terms of biodiversity, we know that we are approaching a point of collapse. I hope that the shareholders present here today agree with us and that you see that the time has come to make these changes so that you can support our proposal. And we ask for a written ballot. Thank you. Next, we move to item 9, namely a proposal from the shareholder. And it was distributed by the notice of the meeting and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. And the shareholders, 5 minutes for his presentation. Good evening, Mr. Turner Lundebacher. Good evening, Mr. Satter. Good evening, fellow shareholders. Good to see you. I think today is an important day, not only for Equinor, not only for the oil industry, but for the world at large. Today, investors will show if they really mean business about climate change. And I think there's only one key question today, and that's Scope 3 or not Scope 3. For those not familiar with the industry, Jurgen, Scope 3 is the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room, it's the emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels, 80% to 90% of your business. The only thing we ask in a resolution is please set targets for the emissions of your products and align these targets with the Paris Climate Agreement. The exact same resolution has been on the agenda of your peer Shell After a small but significant number of shareholders started supporting that climate resolution, Shell set a climate ambition for all of its emissions, including emissions of its product Scope 3. Today, we will see how many investors will urge you to follow Shell in setting targets for Scope 3 by voting for our climate resolution. We believe that you like Shell need shareholder support to do this. This is a very important step. That's why we end our resolution with the words, you have our support. Unfortunately, you rejected this support and you urge your shareholders to vote against this climate resolution and you left no doubt about why you do not want to take responsibility for the emissions of your products. Again, Scope 3. So today and in the coming weeks, investors have an opportunity to leave no doubt that Scope 3 targets are crucial components to meaningful climate action by voting for climate resolutions. There are more of these resolutions on the agenda of, for example, BP and Chevron. Conversely, there's a clear and present risk that voting against these kind of climate resolution will legitimize installing on taking responsibility for Scope 3 emissions. The rejection of this climate resolution by the Board demonstrates a clear lack of realism in what we need to do to address climate change seriously. Fellow shareholders, Equinor still needs more support to take meaningful action. The resolution asked for no more, no less than commitment to achieving the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. And Equinor's current stance effectively allows the company to continue business as usual for decades. We've seen we've just seen Mr. Reinharden explain to you that Equinor decreased its own emission while increasing production. This is big oil's equivalent of big tobacco saying, we smoke less, but we sold more cigarettes. So this is not what the world wants. Investors are asking oil companies to come clean and make concrete commitments for all emissions Scope 1, 2 and 3. And all we ask is simply is for Acono to align its target with the Paris goal to limit global warming below 2 degrees C. Let's be honest, by rejecting climate resolutions, the Board of Equinor asks us to consider a scenario which the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement will not be met, a scenario catastrophic with catastrophic climate change. More and more investors find this morally and more important financially unacceptable. Let me quote. Aegon, for example, says, we consider it's very important the goals of the Paris Agreement are actually achieved in the interest both of society and our clients. Church of England says the position we take in supporting to follow this resolution is based on our belief that we need targets across the whole oil and gas sector. So we hope investors today will encourage you to set will send us a clear signal to Equinor and to all oil and gas companies that their owners do not accept reluctance to take responsibility for Scope 3. So Mr. Stoner Nunebacher, Mr. Eldest Setra, Directors and Shareholders, today investors will show if they prefer Equinor's stance to ignore the elephant in the room, to ignore the emissions of their own products, Scope 3 or if they want a world that takes meaningful action to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, a world where oil companies set meaningful climate targets for all emissions, especially the oil majors. They have the resources and the buying power to make or break the Paris Agreement. Again, the key question today is Scope 3 or not Scope 3. You need shareholder support for that for so that's why we finalize with the last words of all our climate resolutions, you have our support. And let me immediately ask the question I have is how will you prove to your shareholders, to your investors that you are aligned as a Paris Climate Agreement without taking responsibility for Scope 3. I hope to get a clear answer to that later. Thank you very much. We move on to item 10, a proposal put forward by our shareholder. Under item 10, it the proposal is clear from the notes of the meeting and is being shown on the screen. It will not be read aloud. I give the floor to the shareholder who submitted the proposal, who will have 5 minutes for the presentation. We will revert to any comments regarding item 10 and the vote on this motion. Moderator Board AGM, When Stetel last year changed its name to Equinor, it got support from many of our shareholders. We took it as a signal that the company wanted to take more of the responsibility to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Accord. The new name signaled, according to the board, a boost towards a shift from fossil based to energy balanced energy production. And only 1 year later, our optimism has been replaced with pessimism. The company explores and drills as never before. As we heard the CEO tell us. And both in Norway and in other on other continents, as I said before, even vulnerable coastal areas right down to Southern Australia in the Great Australian Bight. And oil and gas production reaches new records and their renewable projects are actually standing still. So maybe the name was nothing but an attempt to actually greenwash the still fossil based production. The winter in Eastern Norway was a white winter with snow this year, but the snow nearly rained away in February when we had the mildest winter that we could remember. And this set of alarm bells in our area where normally we can ski in the winter. Instead of reducing their contribution to our globe heating up, they sponsor their ski association for more skiing medals, and they have commercial advertising where they recruit more young people, tomorrow's heroes, and they want them to actually be recruited to the oil and gas industry among other places. Last March, the Minister of Finance presented a report to parliament where the Sovereign Wealth Fund was told to take its money out of oil and gas companies because they wanted to reduce the government's risk of future losses because of less profitability for fossil fuels in future. Even if Equinor is a huge company, the company is, of course, vulnerable to the same risks. The Bank of Norway recommended that the government and the state, through the Sovereign Wealth Fund, withdraw its investments from major oil companies, including Equinor. Many of us shareholders expect Equinor to pick up on these signals, take them seriously and change its tuck and investments to a real energy balance as soon as possible. Based on this and supported by shareholders who are part of the grandparents' climate campaign, I will ask for the AGM to support our proposal that you see on the screen that you do not vote in favor of the rejection by the Board of this sustainable proposal. Thank you. Thank you. We now move on to Item 19, another proposal put forward by a shareholder. And the proposal under Item 19 was distributed with the notice of the meeting and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. I ask if the shareholders submitted the proposal is present and wants to present it. That does not seem to be the case. We will then revert to any comments regarding Item 19 and the vote on this motion. We will now open the floor for comments on the reports of the Chair of the Board and the CEO as well as comments on the 4 proposals from shareholders that have been presented. And due to time constraints and to allow enough time for everyone who would like an opportunity to speak, I would The floor is now open. With those who would like to speak, please raise your hand. I see that there are several people who would like to speak. I ask you here at the front row. And please keep your hand up and then we will record your names and then we will call upon you to come forward as we go along. Thank you, Board, executives and shareholders. My name is Brynn O'Brien. I'm from the Australasian Centre For Corporate Responsibility, which is based in Sydney. Let me, too, start with safety. The current temperature trajectory that the world is on of 3 to 5 degrees warming is not safe. Expanding oil and gas reserves in 2019 is not safe. Let me address the proposals that are on the ballot today. The Australasian Centre For Corporate Responsibility supports all of the climate proposals. 2, in particular, enjoy our strong support. Let me address Proposal 8, the specific multidimensional and escalating risks of the Great Australian Bight Project and other projects in Frontier Wilderness Areas. Those specific risks, in our view, outweigh the potential for value creation for shareholders of this company. I will defer to various others on those specific risks, but it is this for this reason that we support the proposal. On Proposal 9, we note that Equinor resists the setting of targets for its Scope 3 emissions reductions. What this means is that the way that the company's products are used and not the responsibility of the company. But let me direct you to Page 12 of Equinor's Climate Roadmap of 2018, which says, natural gas as a replacement for coal and power generation is a critical part of a credible low carbon strategy. And the natural gas we supply to Europe is helping companies reduce emissions. Given that one of the key value propositions that our company presents to its shareholders is, in fact, how our products are used. My question for the board is this: What due diligence does the board do on how customers use products? And by presenting this in this way to shareholders, doesn't this mean that Equinor, in fact, does have a responsibility to account to shareholders for at least the net impact of our Scope 3 emissions. I have one final procedural request. I note that the questions today will be collected, in a group, and acknowledge that this method has been employed previously. My request is simply an assurance that each of the questions raised receive the attention of an answer and if necessary, the opportunity for follow-up questions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I suggest that you at the end go next. Did you want to say something? Greetings and hello from our country, Australia. The nullaboh from the Great Australian Bight. My name is Bana Lawrie from the Moaning tribe of the Nullabor, Greater Australian Bight, I'm a Songmin, a whale Songmin, an elder, a protector of the whale, protector of the ocean and a keeper and a custodian of the whale people in the Great Australian Bight. We come from nature. We come from the ocean and the whale dream time. Consultation is very important to us, but Equinor did not come to me and the elders, the traditional owners of that country, the people of the whale, the keepers of the whale. And that's shown us very disrespectful to us. None of them people came to talk to us about our country, and we are hurt by it because we love our ocean. We love the whales. We love our country, and we respect it. My people have looked after that ocean, the whales and whale nursery in the century for 120,000 years, and it's beautiful. It's pristine like it is. Mother Earth gave us everything, created that part of the world for us. Mankind will never make it any greater than what Mother Nature has provided us with. It's a beautiful place. It's one of the last places on this planet, and we don't want to lose it. There will be no oil company to drill for oil in our Great Australian Bight. We will not allow it. That place is important to us, Aboriginal people, and also to all Australians who live along that coast. It's all our home. It's the home of the whale. It's home of my people. We depend upon it. We've depended on it for the last 120,000 years. It's an amazing place. You are not welcome, Equinor, are not welcome to drill in our Great Australian Bight. We belong there with the whales and their habitats. We share food together. We've lived together in harmony and friendship. Whale is our family. The ocean is our family. It's very important to us. That ocean is pristine, one of its kind. You will never find another like that again on planet Earth. We love it the way it is. We don't want to change a thing. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Peter Owen. I'm the Director of the Wilderness Society in South Australia. I've lived in the area all my life and for the past 15 years. I've been working with the community to protect this magnificent place. The community is very proud of the Greater Australian White. Over 85% of the animals and plants that are found here are found nowhere else on earth. An accident here would therefore be an extinction event. The Bight is now covered in protected areas with many in the community now calling for World Heritage Listing. The Bight is not an appropriate place to be pushing to industrialize. The community will never accept oil exploration here and rightly so. Opposition to Equinor's plan is now at unprecedented levels in Australia and growing. It's fast becoming an issue of international concern. Equinor has so much potential to be a leader with renewable energy solutions. That's a potential that Equinor needs to embrace and lead. You have such potential and we are now in a situation climatically that is very serious. I mean it's been mentioned numerous times tonight. We must stop the expansion of fossil fuels if we're going to have any chance of providing our children with a livable climate. That is what the science says. That is our responsibility collectively. Everyone in this room, we're all in this together. I therefore urge Equinor to follow the lead of both BP and Chevron and withdraw its deep sea oil drilling plans in the Great Australian Bight, I thank you for your time. Thank you both very much. Next speaker is Rune Volsnes. Please come forward. Thank you for giving me the floor to speak. Hello to the board. Hello to everyone, all shareholders. My name is Rune Volsnes. I live currently in Australia. I also work on the campaign which is trying to persuade Equinor to withdraw from activities in the Great Australian BITE. I would like to tell you a bit about what it's like to be Norwegian and Australia now. I work on this campaign, but I was sent to photograph from 1 of the major demonstrations against Equinor. I thought that would be a matter of course, But what happened is that there are 4,000 Australians who actually have shown up on the beach to swim out on their boards to demonstrate the gains Equinor not only against Equinor, but Norway as a whole. And I'm there in the middle of 4,000 people, people who are afraid, who are upset for losing everything. And there are posters all around me who tell Equinor to go home and who tell me to go home, Norway. There's no doubt that Equinor's project's impact on Norway's reputation in the countries where you operate on our behalf. And my question to you is, is Norway's reputation the Norwegian state and the Norwegian people, relevant when you decide whether or not to start up new projects such as the one in the Great Australian Bight? Thank you. I'll then give the word to Heath Juski. Good evening. My name is Heath Joske from Streaky Bay in the Great Australian Bight. I've come from the opposite side of the globe to represent my son, my wife, my family, surfers and fishermen and communities all over Australia. 90% of Australians live close to the sea. Many of us use the ocean every day. The ocean has been inextricably linked to Australian culture and identity for indigenous and non indigenous people as far as far for as long as our history goes. For me, it's my place of work where I go to play, my teacher, a place to escape the heat in summer and the place I take my family to play, relax and connect with nature. It is everything. We see your plans to drilling the Bight as a direct threat to our culture and identity. When I moved to the Bight, I was blown away by the amount of fishermen working out of the rich waters. The fishermen of South Australia are extremely concerned. In many cases, fishing families run generations deep and it brings them immense pride to carry on tradition from father to son again and again. Surfers from all over Australia are extremely concerned. They have banded together in a way that we have never seen worldwide. A surfer's letter has been signed by Australia's most iconic surfers. Between them, there are 28 world titles. The Bight is a sacred playground for Australian surfers, as has been shown in the paddle outs. A paddle out is traditionally a show of respect to elders past. But since your draft environmental plan was released, it has been used as a show of protest against your plans every single weekend. The numbers are growing and up to 10 paddle outs have taken place during a single day. This covers nearly every part of our surfable coastline from Southern Western Australia to Coastal Queensland. Every community that stands up encourages us locals in the Bight that we are not alone in fighting this and far from it. I was never planning on being an activist, but your plans represent a project that threatens my whole existence. I had no choice, and that is exactly how these other Aussies feel. Not only does the spill threaten our identity, but the implications of the project proceeding do too. We cannot afford to open a frontier field and continue to mindlessly abuse oil for many decades to come. Our oceans and planet can simply not sustain that pressure and abuse. To finish, I'd like to read one of the hundreds of letters that I have presented to you earlier. Dear Equinor, last July on a cold and windy morning on the rugged coast of the Great Australian Bight, a tight knit community of cactus beach surfers threw my grandfather's ashes and some wattle into the freezing ocean. His name was Whale because he never got out of the water. I didn't know his real name till I was about 10 years old. Grandpa Whale is back where he belongs, in the depths of the Southern Ocean with the whales, nestled in the rocks of the Bight Cliffs, among the seagrass meadows, where countless other Aboriginal ancestors also lay to rest. I believe Yalater's Elders have not even been consulted on this. Honestly, I don't want my grandpa covered in oil. I don't want any of it covered in oil, and I just don't believe you know the true extent of the Southern Ocean's ferocity. You cannot do this safely and shouldn't even if you could because of the climate emergency we find ourselves in. This isn't just about us here. Think about your children, please. I'm begging you. And I'd just like to let you know that the Australian movement is getting bigger and bigger. And the more further you progress and the more suppressed you say you put us by saying we give you 31,000 submissions and you only take into consideration 13,000,000, the angrier we get and the more opposition you're going to get. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll now get the floor to Gru Nielander. Board AGM, co shareholders, the spirit of our times is changing because the climate is changing. Moral imperative is becoming clear to more and more of us, solidarity between generations or the highest possible dividend. Equinor should be praised for the offshore wind product, high wind among others. Wind pays off without subsidies now. It's profitable. Investment in renewables should be doubled and tripled and more, also with their view to long term yield for the shareholders because the economy is changing. Petroleum dropped on GDP from 25% to 16% over 4 years. It's up a little bit now because things are going well, but let that be a warning. There are actions, court actions threatening because if Equinor has to pay compensation, they will get not only this, but a wave of climate court cases. The Uganda case in the Netherlands was 1 and there was the climate case about the Arctic where the state won in the first round because the judge only took into account the domestic climate damage, but 90% of our oil is used abroad. A number of tobacco companies have had to pay compensation because they continue their activities after they knew the harmful effects. In March 2019, 3 companies in Canada were ordered to pay NOK 100,000,000,000 in compensation and damages. It would certainly destroy or harm the reputation of Equinor if they don't look into the effects of use of oil. Oil and gas is not what society want. They want energy, light, heating, cars that are run. Of course, having redundancies year after year is painful. And growth that is good for the globe will give you happy shareholders, happy employees. And this AGM is full of responsible forward looking people who want a dividend, but they don't want that to be at the expense of the future of the next generations. We should actually go for proposals from shareholders that look after both sides and that can stand up to the test of history. We are the elders. We are the grandparents with experience. Traditionally, we are the council of elders, the wise council. You should listen to us. Thank you. Now Halvar Vogue and DeRout, I invite you to come forward to speak. At Newell General Meeting, I represent Labour Party's Youth Wing. My name is Halvor. We need to learn the lessons from our elders and also to plan for the future. Last year, I visited my grandfather, I found an old camera, one of these big cameras with a tripod and everything. I took it into the living room and I asked him how old was it. He said that, well, I was a temp at a U. S. Farm. And then I bought it, but you don't find such Kodak cameras later. Kodak was one of the world leading companies for the century in photography and video. But when Canon and Leica and other companies adjusted to new developments, Kodak did not. And then they needed to close down the plant. The past shows us that even though you're at the best and top of your trades and earn money, it may not be for the future. What can what lessons can we learn? Last year, we had the biggest youth campaign. Last year, thousands of Norwegian students went on strike, marched into the street because the older generation did not do enough for the climate. The United Nations Intergovernmental Climate Panel say that we have 11 years to change. And we need to say a clear no to open for exploration and drilling in vulnerable areas such as the Great Australian Bight and also up north of Norway. We must understand that the world will not allow us to do what they used to at the time when we didn't know the consequences. We need to design new solutions for the future. And if there's one country that has every possibility to adjust to the green renewable society, it's us. Equinor is now moving from becoming an oil and gas company to an energy company. Solar and waves will be and maybe as important as oil and gas in past years. I hope that Equinor can act as a driving force in the green shift to help solve climate challenges instead of just pouring petrol on the fire. The consequences will come if we don't make the right the choices today because otherwise all we will be left with is a bad reputation. Thank you. I now ask Jan Erik Sundelan to come forward. Moderators, AGM, Chair of the Board, CEO, I'm Jan Erik Sundelan. I'm candidate for Mayor for the Liberal Party in Stavanger, and I am for this company that I believe in. And this debate about climate change is really becoming more serious. We it made an impression to hear these local people from Australia who made the trip to come here, both on not only for the climate, but for nature conservation. I cheer you on and I support you in your struggle because I don't think it's necessary to open up vulnerable areas when there's so many other areas we can drill and explore. But I want to bring the debate further. We all want Equinor to become greener. I achieved Aman. I'm all for what you do. And our party will support you in your developments, but you have to speed up the shift in Equinor. You have to be an engine that builds offshore wind in Norway. It's not quite true that it pays for itself, although someone said that earlier. I think Equinor can do something and play a part here. We need better framework conditions, and this is urgent. The train is leaving the platform. I want Equinor to call for better framework conditions so that there can be a local domestic market on the Norwegian shelf. I hope you will play your part because there are procedures in the political parties now at top level. They talk about what part Equinor will play in the green shift. Are you able to take part to become an engine in the green shift? If Equinor doesn't do more than run pilot projects for what pays off right now, there's a big risk that there will be problems politically, that you will lose shareholders. And I think that it's time you got going and you and the Norwegian vendor industry can get involved in the green shift and renewables, then we may not have to go into vulnerable areas in Australia and certainly not the Lofoten Islands and Vasterolen in Norway. I look at the Chair of the Board who has a strong position here. I trust in you to lead the way here because as a single shareholder, I cannot do this. I hope it doesn't have to be done by the government, but that you can do this yourself. The time has come to pick up the challenge and give us a green industrial fairy tale for the future. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is Jess Lerch from the Wilderness Society. I have come a long way from Australia to advise the Board and the shareholders in the room that there is a big problem for your company in Australia. Equinor's plan to drill the strong low well in the Great Australian Bight is one of Australia's most controversial development projects. 17 local governments have passed motions, raising concerns and oppositions to the project. Community protest is widespread. It is consistent, determined and it's becoming global. There is no one concern driving this opposition. It's because Australians don't want to industrialize a marine wilderness area, impact unique threatened species or carry any risk of an accident. It's because Equinor has told the community that their views are irrelevant and because Equinor has excluded environment groups like the Willem Society from formal consultation. And it's because we know that the last thing we should be doing if we are trying to meet the Paris Agreement is proving up whole new frontier fossil fuel basins. The community in Australia considers that Equinor's drilling plans are not in the people's interest. This is becoming a line in the sand for people from all walks of life in Australia. Equinor cannot credibly rely on the Australian authorities for a social license in our country. Australia is failing on both climate action and threatened species protection. Our emissions are going up in our country. We are number 2 in the world for species extinction. Surely, this is not the story Equinor wants to be having told day in, day out in Australia, in Norway or in the New York Times. Not at this time in our history. The community has clearly decided that it will resist. So my question for the board is, in July last year, the Port Lincoln Times reported that Equinor made the following statement in relation to its exploration in the Great Australian White. And I quote, if we are not wanted here, we will not push through resistance. Can I please ask the Board to clarify whether that statement accurately reflects the company's current position in relation to this project? Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll give the floor to Perd Henning Lechter. A while back, I was traveling in Australia, and 9 countries in the Southwestern Pacific. These countries have wonderful coral reefs, atolls, wonderful natural scenery and some of them have only a few meters above the sea level as their highest point. Global warming, climate emissions and the rising ocean level threatens their future and better existence. The population is very disappointed and resigned. If the 1.5 degree goal is not achieved, most of these coral reefs will be destroyed. Some of them are already pale and colorless as at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. So my question is, Equinor has an environmental plan for the Great Australian Bight that will be handled and processed by the central authorities in the autumn. And 17 coastal communities have already announced their resistance to the plan. 30,000 comments have been received, I hear. What is the pain and toleration threshold for actually dropping the project, putting it eyes and shelving it? How many negative comments does Equinor need when it comes to the decision that is now pending before they will decide not to go through with this project. Question 2 is why is it so difficult to quantify methods for climate reporting? I mean, in the in your annual reports and financial statements, where you should talk about your plans and your progress to optimize climate goals according to the Paris agreement. Even if there are metrics and ways of measuring it now, climate roadmaps are mentioned here. Why can't this quantification and reporting be intensified in future? Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. First, let me apologize for not introducing myself correctly. I'm Marc Vorpahl, Founder of Follow This. We are a green shareholder in the oil industry. Like to support the oil industry to really commit to the Paris Climate Agreement. I'd like to address the shareholders, especially the CEO. I really want the answer to my question I just asked. Can you give me that right now? They will give a comment after all the speakers been on stage. But could you please explain to your investors? Your investors are very worried about climate change. They all want the Paris Climate Agreement to be achieved. And this means minus 65% to minus 100% CO2 reductions by 2,050. How can you explain to your shareholders that you're aligned with Paris? They really want that. And please explain that to us. As I said, after the last speaker, they will make a comment to all day. Okay. And you will make sure we get you make sure the shareholders get a real answer to that? You are the chair? You will make sure the shareholders get a real answer to that because otherwise, the shareholders have to conclude that the CEO has no idea how he will commit to the Paris Climate Agreement without taking responsibility for the emissions of his products. So please, Chair, make sure investors get the right answer. Thank you. I now give the floor to Paul Brignendal. Mr. President, the Board and fellow shareholders, My name is Paul Bringe Dahl. I'm Chief Investment Officer at Storebrand Asset Management. I make this statement on behalf of Storebrand Asset Management, HSBC Asset Management and UBS Asset Management. All three organizations are Equinor shareholders and supporters of Climate Action 100 plus This is an investor initiative that aims to engage with systemically important greenhouse gas emitters that have a significant opportunity to drive a clean energy transition and can help achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. To date, over 300 investors with more than US30 $1,000,000,000 under management have signed up to support this initiative, equivalent to nearly 1 third of assets under management globally. On April 24, this year, Equinor officially agreed through a joint statement with us to take significant additional action on climate change. Together with the company, we have defined an ambitious pathway, which will see Equinor play an even more active role in the transition to a low carbon economy. We would like to congratulate the company management on this achievement. We are looking forward to continuing our collaborative engagement with them as they deliver on these crucial commitments. Equinor commitments as detailed in the joint statement with investors include assessing its portfolio, including new material capital expenditure in relation to a well below 2 degree scenario from 2019 and onwards. Reviewing existing climate related targets up till 2,030 and setting out new ambitions beyond 2,030 undertaking a comprehensive review of industry association memberships that hold an active position on climate and energy policy reporting overall estimated carbon intensity of energy products and services provided from 2020 and finally, reporting in line with final recommendations of the TCFD, the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure. We will continue engagement with Equinor to support the company and ensure delivery on the commitments made. We strongly believe that the successful achievement of these commitments will allow Equinor to significantly drive decarbonization along the company's value chain and secure its place in a cleaner global economy. Thank you. Thyssen Beck? Thank you. I have no further names on my list of speakers. So I'm wondering, does anybody else wish to speak? There doesn't seem to be anyone. I then give the floor to Eldar Sietra, followed by Jon Erik Reinarson. And they will comment on all the speakers' interventions. Thank you. I would like to comment on some of the elements that have been raised. I want to start by thanking all the people who have got engaged in the debate. I see strong engagement and strong emotions and those who have put forward proposals to the AGM. To me, this is an important part of the shareholder democracy. The Chair gave you in his intervention the response of the Board to the proposals we have received and I shared some of your perspectives in my introduction. So I was not going now to address and comment all the specific interventions today. But I will comment a little bit to the ones who have come the furthest today. And at the same time, these comments will answer some of the questions that were raised. And the chair after me, the chair of the board will probably address some of the other issues that have been raised. It will may have to be done I will do it in English because I want to talk directly to the ones who have traveled so far. Or are visitors from Australia, you've come a long way, and we appreciate that very much that you come all this way to share your views with us. And also, I know you have met some of our people in our exploration community earlier this week. So dialogue is a key value and really important for us, and we welcome also opposing views. If there is not opposing views, there is not a good dialogue as well. So we appreciate that. And that's why we, as the first company, as you know, aware of this, voluntarily published our environmental plan for public comment in Australia on this well that we are planning for. And that's why we also met with a broad set of stakeholders in Southern Australia to listen and to learn and to inform about our company, how we do things and our plans. In these meetings, we hear a wide range of perspectives on exploration in the Bight. And to be frank, not just those perspectives and use that has been presented and are represented here today. But they all have one thing in common. They take care for the environment in the Veit. And you believe me, we do that too. So I understand and I respect that you oppose exploration in this area. But let me at least assure you that our number one priority is safe and responsible operations. The debate has also illustrated some of the dilemmas that we are faced with. We know that oil and gas demand has to be reduced, has to come down. But even within the framework of the Paris Agreement, we will depend on oil and gas for many years to come. And as a result of natural declines for producing fields lack of short term alternatives, they're simply not there. Exploration and new discoveries are still needed. For example, related to heavy transportation, heavy industries and aviation and increasingly also for purposes where oil is actually not burned, including everything from mobile phones to electric cars to the asphalt on the roads that we drive on, medicines, clothes and a wide range of useful and pretty critical materials for people. So this oil and gas still needs to be produced from somewhere, and it matters where it's produced from and how it's produced. And our aim is to do it safely and with as low emissions as possible. So while you are here, I also hope that you have time to see some of our beautiful coastline in this country. Also in Norway, we care about our seas, the marine and the maritime environment and our coastal communities. And through collaboration with authorities, communities and other industries, we have, for decades, found ways to develop our oil and gas resources safely in successful coexistence with fisheries and other uses of the oceans. Later this year, we will start production from the impressive Johan Sverdrup field, as I mentioned in my introduction, where the distance from the beaches just outside Stavanger, the beautiful beaches, is less than half the distance from the closest shoreline to our well in the Bight. In fact, all producing fields in Norway are significantly closer to shore than our planned well in Australia. More than 6,000 wells have been drilled on the Norwegian continental shelf without polluting our precious coastline. And just to reiterate, underline our commitment, we would not proceed with our project in Australia unless we are confident it can be done in a safe manner. The environmental plan is currently being reviewed by the Australian regulator, NAPCEMA, a very competent regulator that is administering strict very strict regulations. So we will continue to engage with stakeholders and welcome continued dialogue also with all of you. So thank you very much for coming here today. And I now thank you for the good discussion and for your interesting and devoted interventions. I give the floor to the chair. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would also like to thank everyone for an excellent exchange of views. We have dealt with many items. And I would also like to thank you for your engagement, not least, for those of you who have traveled so far, to contribute. There's been a devoted to climate engagement and also in favor of casting back climate emissions. This is among one of the most important issues that we are all facing. It sounds as if and I do think that we all agree on the goal, namely that we need an energy transition and it needs to happen soon. We need to work to meet the Paris Agreement targets. We may disagree on some of the measures on what it will take and not least on what it's possible to do. Our point of departure is that we should not disregard any initiatives. We need to use all the tools in the toolbox. We also believe that we should have as efficient and effective tools as possible. This means financial and economic tools and also to look to the demand and what drives demand. Each and every one of us need to try to reduce emissions, I, you and Equinor. And Equinor will and share shoulders responsibility. The question from Mark van Baal and follow this. And I believe this also clarifies some of the other questions raised. As I mentioned in my introduction, Equinor already report on estimated emissions related to use of our products. And our joint declaration with Climate Action 100 plus have committed we have committed to report on estimated emissions intensity for the products we deliver. That is scope 3. Equinor is committed to play an active and positive role in society's decarbonization through engagement, technology, development, innovation, operations and investments. We are already world leading when it comes to low emissions per unit produced, and we will reduce it further. We are building our renewable portfolio and have stated high ambitions to grow within renewables. We are leading the way in developing carbon capture and storage, and we have launched plans to invest in natural carbon sinks in form of protection of tropical rainforest. In addition, we strongly support carbon pricing, and large part of our products are subject to CO2 tax and the EU ETS quota system. Equinor is committed to continue to play this active role. Yet, our activities do not include direct engagement with end users of our products. We have little direct influence on how our products are being consumed. Whether we drive or fly, the environmental responsibility for these emissions lies with the car manufacturer, the airliner and the traveler, him or herself, you and me. These emissions must, in our view, remain each party's or individual's responsibility, and the accountability for this should not be diluted. This principle is called emitter pace and is essential in the Paris Agreement and a precondition for us to reach the climate targets. We cannot succeed with the energy transition if not everyone in the energy chain takes responsibility for the emissions that they themselves can influence. Therefore, we do not believe the best way to contribute is by setting a goal for something we do not control ourselves. The Board believes Equinor contributes better and in a more forceful way through the measures we do and that we have described and I have just described now. We set strict targets for our own energy usage. We impact Scope 3 in the most meaningful way we can, and we encourage others to do the same. Jan, talk for all of us. Once again, thank you for all your proposals and for your engagement. Shareholders speaking. Of Mike, the interpreters cannot hear. That is not what I said. Again, thank you for all proposals and engagement. Many people naturally have opinions about Equinor's activities and how we perform our activities. I believe that such an exchange of views is important. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for all the proposals, all the interventions, all the responses. That brings us back to the approval of the Annual Accounts and directors' report for 2018. Now we will hear from state authorized public accountant, Stolle Christensen from KPMG, who will read excerpts from the auditor's report for 2018. Please go ahead. Thank you, Tonne. Independent auditors report for Equinor ASA for the year ended 31 December 2018. My name is Stora Christensen, and I'm a partner of KPMG. And I've been appointed as the Head of the Auditor team for Equinor ASA according to Norwegian law. I have signed the audit report for the Equinor Group for the financial year 2018. I refer refer you to the annual report for the complete audit report for 2018 signed on the 5th March 2019. The audit report is 6 pages long, so I will not read the whole report here. But refer you to Equinor's annual report where you will find the full report. The conclusion comes first in the audit report. And for Equinor, our opinion is unqualified without any reservations. And this means that in our opinion, the financial statements are prepared in accordance with laws and regulations and gives a true and fair view of the financial position of the company as at 31st December 2018 and its financial performance and its cash flows for 2018. As auditors for Equinor, we report on key audit matters. These are matters that we believe have been most significant in our audit of the financial statements for 2018. For each key audit matter, we report why the matter is a key audit matter, and we also describe how we have addressed the matter in our audit. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statement as a whole. And as such, we don't express any discrete opinions and discretionary opinions on these matters. For Equinor, we have reported 2 key audit matters for 2018. These matters are: 1, valuation of upstream assets and the second is income tax estimates. The common denominator for the matters reported this year is that they require considerable discretionary judgment. And for these matters, we have assessed assumptions about the future, such as future oil and gas prices, foreign exchange rates and production profiles. In our opinion, the information presented in the Board of Directors' report and in the statements on corporate governance concerning the financial statements and the going concern assumption and the proposal for the allocation of the profit along with the corporate social responsibility is consistent with the financial statements and complies with relevant laws and regulations. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Maria Sliadevili. As Chair of the Corporate Assembly, I will now read aloud the Corporate Assembly statement on the Board of Directors proposal. At its meeting on March 14, 2019, the Corporate Assembly reviewed the financial statements have reviewed the financial statements and the director's report for 2018 for Equinor ASA and the Equinor Group and the Board's proposal for the allocation of the net income for the year. The corporate assembly supports the board's proposal for the annual accounts and the allocation of the loss. The general meeting is encouraged to adopt the board's proposal for the annual accounts for 2018 for Equinor ASA and for the Equinor Group as well as the director's report and the distribution of the proposed 4th quarter 2018 dividend. The payment of dividend is expected to take place around 29th May 2019. So we support the proposal for the annual accounts and the allocation of the profit. Can the general meeting approve the proposed resolution under item 6? There seems to be no objections and the proposal is EFI carried. We move on to item 7, authorization to distribute dividend based on approved annual accounts for 2017. We will then move and on, and it is shown on the screen and will not be read aloud. Can you support the resolution under item 7? There seems to be no objections. And the Board of Directors proposal is thereby carried. We move on to a vote under Item 8. We understand the shareholder putting the proposal to want a written ballot and we will carry this out. The shareholders are asked to tick off by using ballot slip A of the ballot slips you have received. The ballot slips will be collected after the written votes for all 4 shareholder proposals. And that is items 8, 9, 10 and 19. For all the ballots, those who are in attendance here today and who have already cast a vote electronically in advance do not need to vote again now. For the proposed resolution to be adopted, a simple majority of votes cast is required. Please note that for written ballots, abstentions and ballot slips where the abstention box has been ticked off and ballots incorrectly completed with more than one box ticked off. This will not be counted and will not be counted among the number of votes cast. The tallying will take place in a separate room under the supervision of the external auditor. In addition to this, the electronically cast advance votes will naturally be included in the results of the vote. If you would like to support the shareholders' motion, vote for the motion and vote against the motion if you want to follow the Board of Directors recommendation. Please remember to use ballot slip A. We now move on to item 9 and the vote. And the proposal is on the screen. Does the shareholder request a written ballot? A written ballot? Do you request a written ballot? No. No? Okay. Written ballot is not requested. We will therefore vote by a show of hands. If you want to support the shareholders' motion, vote for the motion. And vote against the motion, if you want to follow the Board of Directors' recommendation. I now ask all those who support the shareholders' proposal to indicate their vote by a show of hands, while those not in favor of the proposal do nothing. Thank you. This requires a simple majority of votes to be carried. And I have noted that the representative of the Norwegian government, the state holding 67% of the votes and several other shareholders have done nothing indicating that they support the board's proposal. Therefore, the resolution does not have the required majority and has not been carried. I ask the shareholders who have not cast their vote electronically in advance and who wish to register their vote for the proposal to go over to the DNB desk by the entrance immediately after the meeting is adjourned. We then move on for a vote on the item 10. The proposal is shown on the screen and we understand the shareholder to request a written ballot and we will carry this out now. The shareholder actually involves a change of the articles association and demands 2 thirds of the votes cast. A written ballot will now be carried out. The shareholders are asked to tick off by using ballot slip B of the ballot slips you have received. If you would like to support the shareholders' motion, vote for the motion and vote against the motion if you want to follow the Board of Directors' recommendation. Please remember to use ballot slip B. As I mentioned earlier, the ballot slip will be collected after the written ballots for all shareholder proposals. We will then move on to the vote on item 19, and the proposal is displayed on the screen. Since the shareholder submitting the proposal is not present, there's no one to request a written ballot. A simple majority of votes cost is required for the proposed resolution to be adopted. And since no one has requested a ballot, we will then have a vote by show of hands. If you vote for the motion, you support the shareholders' motion and you vote against the motion if you want to follow the Board of Directors' recommendation. If you support the shareholders' proposal, you indicate so by show of hands. If you do not, you do nothing. As I said, a simple majority of those cars is required. And I have noted that the representative of the Norwegian state holding 67 of the votes and several other shareholders have done nothing indicating that they support the Board's proposal. Therefore, the resolution does not have the required majority and has not been adopted. Shareholders who have not given electronic votes in advance and who then wish to register their vote needs to go to the DNB desk by the entrance immediately after the meeting is adjourned. All ballot slips will now be collected and the result of the ballots will be read aloud as soon as the Annual General Meeting has dealt with all the items on the agenda. We will now have a 10 minute break while collecting ballot slips, and we will be back at 7:30. It's 7:30, and I think we are ready to start again. Susan Tak? Thank you. We now move on to item 11, which is the Board's report on corporate governance. Pursuant to the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act, Section 564, the AGM shall review and consider the Board's report on corporate governance submitted in compliance with Section 3B of the Norwegian Accounting Act. The statement is included in Chapter 3 in Equinor's annual report, which has been made available on Equinor's website prior to the AGM. The AGM shall carry out an advisory vote regarding the corporate governance report. And the board proposes that the general meeting endorses the report. Reference is made to the Chair of the Board's comments on the report earlier at today's general meeting. Are there any comments to the report? No, I don't see anyone. The general meeting has thereby endorsed the Board of Directors' report. We continue with Item 12, the Board of Directors' statement on stipulation of salary and other remuneration for executive management. In accordance with Section 660A of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act, The Board of Directors will prepare a separate statement on the stipulation of salary and other remuneration for executive management. The full statement is included in Equinor's annual report in Chapter 312 and referred to in Note 4 in Equinor ASA's financial statements, which was made available on Equinor's website prior to the AGM. I will give the floor to Chair of the Board, Joonen Erik Reinhardsson, who will give a briefing on the statement. Thank you, Chona. Through the Board's declaration on stipulation on salary and other remuneration for Equinor's executive management, the board has presented a report on the company's remuneration policy, the formal decision making process and the overall remuneration concept for the corporate executive committee. Equinor's remuneration policy and terms are firmly aligned with company's overall values, people policy and performance oriented framework. The rewards and recognition for executives are designed to attract and retain the right people. The board emphasizes the importance of offering executive compensation that is competitive, but not market leading in the markets in which we operate. The remuneration policy and principles executed in 2018 were mainly in accordance with the declaration given to the general meeting last year. In 2018, the CEO's base salary was increased by 2.9%, in line with the wage settlement for other employees in Equinor. The CEO has a variable performance based pay with a maximum variable pay potential of 50% of total base salary and a long term incentive scheme with a share well as reserve and resource replacement ratio. The total serious incident frequency SIF was lower than ever like we've heard today. However, the total recordable injuries frequency did not meet the improvement target set. The number of oil and gas leaks showed a significant improvement from 2017. The carbon intensity is in the best quartile compared to other peer companies. Both the total relative shareholder return, the TSR, and the relative return on average capital employed, Roake, ended in the 1st quartile. However, the company did not fully achieve its cost development target. The reserve and resource replacement ratio ended well above the company target. Value creation from exploration activities was somewhat below target, but Equinor has secured access to attractive new acreage. Equinor increased production and at the same time reduced the CapEx further as a result of continuous focus on capital efficiency and strict prioritization. In 2018, production reached a historic all time high for Equinor. The company's employees have a strong sense of commitment, which among other things is due to targeted focus on human resource development. Changes in the executive management and deviation from this declaration on salary and remuneration to the executive management for 2017. In 2018, Equinor made some changes in its corporate structure and executive management. As part of this process, Al Cook was recruited internally to the position of Executive Vice President, Global Strategy and Business Development. In order to be able to offer this top executive a competitive remuneration based on the local U. K. Market, the Board decided that he would maintain variable pay and pension arrangement from his previous position. Alcook has a variable salary with a target level of 40% of base salary and participate in the long term incentive scheme with a value of 70% of base salary. This individual deviation does not imply any change to the company's established remuneration principles and concepts, which will be continued in the same form as previously described to this general meeting. And then finally, the remuneration systems for executives are designed to ensure that we attract and retain people who are strongly committed to deliver on the company's business strategy and who are able to adapt to changing business environment. The board has reviewed the company's remuneration systems and practices and concluded that they are transparent. And in accordance with prevailing guidelines and good corporate governance and that any deviations have been properly explained. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. In accordance with Section 5, 6, 3rd paragraph of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act, the Board of Directors shall prepare a separate statement and deal with this with and we must conduct an advisory vote on the Board's guidelines for the stipulation of remuneration for the current financial year of 2018. Furthermore, the act requires that the part of the statement which relates to remuneration Does the general meeting want us to deal with these two parts of the proposal separately? This does not seem to be the case, and the general meeting has thereby endorsed the board statement regarding the remuneration and approved the proposal for remuneration linked to the development of the company's share price. We continue with item 13, approval of remuneration for the company's external auditor for 20.80. General Meeting is asked to approve the auditing fees for Equinor ASA for 2018. It's proposed that the auditors' fee for auditing services in 2018 for Equinor ASA of NOK 7,126,977 be adopted by the general meeting. Can the general meeting adopt the proposed resolution under item 13? There seems to be no objections and the proposal is thereby carried. We then move to the item regarding item 14, regarding election of external auditor. The corporate assembly proposes that Ernst and Young AS be elected as the new auditor for Equinor ASA. The Board's Audit Committee has submitted grounds for his motion, which was distributed along with the notice of the meeting. As Chair of the Corporate Assembly, I will briefly give an account of the process which resulted in the Corporate Assembly's proposal to elect Ernst and Young AS as the new external auditor. In accordance with principles for good corporate governance, the independent external auditor is subject to regular review. In 2018, Equinor initiated a process to evaluate relevant candidates for the role of the Equinor Group's external auditor. A third tendering process has been carried out where the tender invitations were sent to the 4 biggest global auditing companies. The result was that Ernst and Young, their tender achieved the best overall technical and commercial ranking. Ernst and Young presented a competent and experienced audit team, which we feel confident will supply good audit services for Equinor going forward. And this is the reason for the corporate assembly's proposal to the general meeting. The general meeting is asked to approve the election of Ernst and Young AES as the new auditor for Equinor Eze. The proposed resolution is shown on the screen. Are there any comments to the proposal? That does not seem to be the case and the resolution under Item 14 is hereby adopted. We then move on to Item 15, determination of remuneration for corporate assumptions. The proposal has been distributed with a notice of the meeting and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. As Chair of the Nomination Committee, I can inform you that the proposed increase in remuneration is in line with the general salary increase in society. Are there any comments to the proposed resolution? If not, the proposal is carried. We move now to item 16, determination of remuneration for the nomination committee. The nomination committee has proposed changes to the remuneration for the nomination committee, and the proposal is shown on the screen. This proposed increase in remuneration is also in line with the general salary increase in society. Are there any comments to the proposed resolution? That is not the case. And the proposal is therefore considered adopted. Next is item 17. Since 2004, the company has offered a share savings plan for employees of the group. The purpose of this scheme is to augment good business culture and encourage loyalty through employees becoming part owners of the company. Globally, 83% of all employees participate in the share savings plan. At the Annual General Meeting in 2018, it was decided to authorize the Board of Directors to require shares in the market for this purpose. This authorization expires on the date of the Annual General Meeting in 2019. It is now proposed that the general meeting gave the Board of Directors a new authorization to acquire shares in the market in order to continue the company's share savings plan. The proposed resolution was distributed with a notice and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. Can the general meeting adopt the proposed resolution under Item 17? There seems to be no objections, and the proposal is thereby adopted. Next is Item 18, an authorization to acquire Equinor ASA shares in the market for subsequent annulment. The Board of Directors requests the Annual General Meeting for authorization to repurchase up to 75,000,000 owned shares in the market, approximately 2.2 percent of the company's share capital in accordance with Section 94 of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act. Such authorization is common in many listed companies, And the repurchase of own shares benefit shareholders by the remaining shares representing an increased ownership interest in the company. For a detailed explanation of the background for the proposal, see the notice. And the motion has also been distributed with a notice of the meeting and is being shown on the screen, so it will not be read aloud. Can the general meeting adopt the proposed resolution under Item 18? There seems to be no objections, and the proposal is thereby carried. We have now come to the part where we will be reading out the results of the votes for the shareholder proposals, where written ballots have been carried out. So we simply need to have a short break until the results of the ballots are ready. I have now received the result of the votes, and I will read them out for the shareholder proposals where written balance have been carried out. First on item 8 of 2,548,009,009,009,69,000,000 votes cast under item 8. 13,783,915 voted for the motion, accounting for 0.54% of the votes cast. This corresponds to 0.41% of Equinor's share capital. The proposal was not adopted. Next is the vote cast on item 10 of 2,571,000,000, 35,271 votes cast on item 10, 12,719,883 voted for the motion, accounting for 0.50 percent of the vote cast. This corresponds to 0.38% of Equinor's share capital. The proposal was not adopted. At this point, we have been through all the items on the agenda. And shortly, the minutes of the general meeting will be published on the company's website. Thank you very much for your commitment and participation in today's agenda. And thank you to all shareholders for attending. The meeting is adjourned.

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