Statoil ASA (STO) is gaining momentum with the start-up of operations on several new oil and gas fields. The growing share of natural gas in the company’s NCS (Norwegian Continental Shelf) volume mix enables it to play a leading role in the European natural gas market.

A sharp rise in production is offsetting the fall in oil and gas prices, which helped the company to experience smaller profit declines in the third quarter than other large European oil companies.

With our bullish long term view on natural gas and the company’s extensive interests in infrastructure assets, we recommend an Outperform rating for Statoil ADRs.Zacks Investment Research