NORWEGIAN state owned oil and gas group Statoil, which owns a chain of petrol stations in Ireland, posted a 28 per cent fall in its first quarter pre tax profits to 3.8 billion kroner (£370 million) due to currency effects, the company said. Statoil also bought Aran Energy last year.

In the same period last year, the group scored a profit of 5.3 billion kroner (£517 million).

The group's revenues increased 14 per cent from 21.2 billion kroner to 24.3 billion kroner.