Petoro AS manages the State’s Direct Financial Interest (SDFI) in the Norwegian oil and gas sector. Its holdings comprise oil and gas reserves, and associated facilities. The company’s activities include the management of participatory interests, monitoring the marketing of the government's oil and gas, and financial management. Key elements in creating and securing value for the state is achieving optimum recovery of resources within each licence, and ensuring that the government obtains its rightful share of this value. Petoro does this through active participation in priority licences and in every phase from exploration to development and operation. The basis for Petoro was laid in 1985, when the SDFI was established. This continued to be managed by Statoil until 2001. Following partial privatisation of the latter, responsibility for the SDFI was transferred to a new state-owned management company, Petoro AS, which was founded on 9 May 2001.