Our history

We are Norway's oldest oil and gas company. Our 53-year history has taken us from the North Sea to the Middle East. The company was founded in 1971 by a group of young, adventurous shipowners and industrial leaders, just as Norway’s oil adventure was taking off.

Since then, DNO has continued to attract the type of people who are willing to take chances, venturing into new activities and new geographic areas, both onshore and offshore. DNO has been an oil and gas explorer with a global mindset from the start. Following forays into the Norwegian and UK sectors of the North Sea and later East and West Africa, DNO evolved into a significant Middle East player.

DNO kicked off its activities in the Middle East with its entry into Yemen in 1998. In 2004, we were the first international oil company to enter the Kurdistan region of Iraq, at a time when the Kurdish region’s oil industry was virtually non-existent.

DNO re-entered the North Sea with the acquisition of offshore exploration and production licenses in Norway and the UK commencing in 2017. Additional offshore exploration and producing assets offshore Côte d'Ivoire followed in 2022.