Statoil sees better days ahead after beating quarterly earnings forecast

Norway's Statoil beat first-quarter earnings expectations on Wednesday and said the global oil market was approaching a balance between supply and demand, offering a glimpse of optimism on the crisis-stricken industry. Statoil CEO Eldar Saetre, however, said the global market was rebalancing and he had become more optimistic over the past month. Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Statoil, 67 percent owned by the Norwegian state, were up 3.7 percent by 0829 GMT, outperforming a 1 percent rise in t