Bjørnar Iversen

Bjørnar Iversen (born 25 July 1968) is a Norwegian businessman from Veiholmen in Smøla municipality.

Iversen was born in Kristiansund. He started as Chief Executive Officer in Songa Offshore SE, a Norwegian/Cyprus based drilling company, 1 June 2013.

Songa Offshore is one of the largest drilling companies operating on the Norwegian Continental Shelf with 7 semi-submersible drilling units and with approximately 1,100 employees with offices in Cyprus, Stavanger, Bergen and Oslo.

Bjornar Iversen started his work in Songa Offshore by taking the company through a very demanding restructuring in 2013 and 2014, where Frederik Mohn took the position as main owner in Songa Offshore with approximately 50% of the company. This restructuring was regarded as very successful, all stakeholders, owners - Statoil as the customer of the Cat D project, bondholders and the banks contributed. The restructuring was awarded the «Oil and Gas restructuring of the year 2013» by Marine Money Conference.

During 2014 and 2015, he shifted the company’s strategy from a globally focused driller to a company focusing on the mid-water, harsh environment, North Atlantic market. Songa Offshore is today the leading player in the North Atlantic drilling market.

The building of the four harsh environment, Category D, semi-submersible rigs which were delivered to Statoil on the Norwegian Continental Shelf over a period of 9 months, was one of the largest private industry projects in Northern Europe in 2015/2016, with a total budget of around USD 3.2 billion, and with more than 36 million man-hours. The last rig was successfully completed on contract with Statoil August 2016.

Iversen sits as Chairman today in several Songa Offshore’s subsidiaries in Norway, Cyprus and other countries where the Group has its subsidiaries.

Iversen also holds a position as Executive Board Member in the Norwegian Business Association in Cyprus - NBAC.

Iversen is today one of the leading figures in the drilling industry with a global network covering the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South Americas, US and Europe.