Following the merger between Statoil and Norsk Hydro companies in Norway, their offices in Iran will be combined and bear the new name of StatoilHydro.

The new managing director of StatoilHydro is scheduled to come to Iran in mid-Sept. and officially takes office on Oct. 1.

Statoil is now working in the offshore section of phases 6-8 of South Pars field in Iran and Hydro is busy with exploration of Anaran and Khorramabad blocks of the country.

A tie-up between Statoil ASA (STO) and Norsk Hydro"s ASA (NHY) oil and gas assets was approved by Norway"s parliament, taking the deal another step towards its planned Oct. 1 completion.

“The merger was passed by a large majority,” a spokesman for the parliament said.

The merger of around $30 billion was recommended to parliament earlier this year by the Norwegian government"s energy and environment committee, which had studied its likely impact on Norway"s oil and gas industry.

The new company, which will initially be called StatoilHydro, will be the world"s biggest offshore oil and gas producer and has already received the necessary approvals from the European Union"s competition authority as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Norwegian state will have a stake of around 62.5% in the new company, and has said it intends to raise this stake to 67% over time.

This would be in accordance with the Norwegian parliament"s decision in 2001 that the state"s holding in Statoil should be at least 67%, which was confirmed in a December 2006 White Paper.

Under the deal, shareholders in Norsk Hydro will receive 0.8622 shares in the merged company for every Norsk Hydro share, as compensation for the transfer of the company"s oil and gas business. Norsk Hydro will continue as a stand-alone aluminum company after the merger.