International energy giant Statoil, which is 67 percent owned by Norway, has tapped Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for its DC representation.

Luke Johnson, who was deputy director of policy and programs for the Bureau of Land Management, and Elizabeth Gore, chief of staff for former North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan, spearhead the effort.

Statoil has been in the U.S. news following this month’s joint announcement with ExxonMobil about plans to develop a Gulf of Mexico tract that may contain more than 6B barrels of oil.

That site is about 200 miles south of New Orleans. The partners begin drilling next year with production slated for 2016.

Statoil also was named with BP and Royal Dutch Shell as a defendant in an oil trading manipulation suit filed in New York by Chicago-based commodities firm Prime International Trading.

The case, according to the Financial Times, is the first lawsuit stemming from a European Commission antitrust probe.