Stilo Share News (STL)

* Rebranding would cost up to $32.5 mln

* Proposal to be put to annual meeting on May 15

* Already has state backing for name change

* Plans to ramp up renewables investment(Adds reaction, cost of rebranding, updates poll number)

By Joachim Dagenborg and Nerijus Adomaitis

OSLO, March 15 (Reuters) - Norway's Statoil plansto change its name to Equinor, reflecting its commitment tobecome a broad energy company rather than one focused only onoil, it said on Thursday.

In a video posted on social media, Statoil presented theswitch as a way to show its determination to develop investmentsin renewable energy.

Reactions by various social media users were mixed.

"Equinor sounds like a princess on a horse in Game ofThrones," one Twitter user said. "Equi" is the genitive singularin Latin for "horse".

Others liked the change. "Congratulations on an excitingname change. The green shift is happening faster and faster.Norway must be a part of it. Good luck with the process,"tweeted Norwegian Culture Minister Trine Skei Grande.

Equinor is a combination of "equi", the starting point forwords like equal, equality and equilibrium, and "nor" forNorway, the company said.

"Reflecting on the global energy transition and how we aredeveloping as a broad energy company, it has become natural tochange our name," Statoil CEO Eldar Saetre said in a statement.

Rebranding would cost up to 250 million Norwegian crowns($32.5 million), he later told a news conference.

Statoil, which is headquartered in the port city and oilindustry hub of Stavanger, has come to symbolise Norway's risein the past half-century to one of the world's richest nations.

Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad ran a straw poll askingreaders whether they liked the name change, with 4,730 peoplesaying "no" and 809 saying "yes".

The proposal will be put to the annual general meeting onMay 15, but Statoil said it already had the backing of theNorwegian state, which has a 67 percent stake in the company.

"The decision reflects that Statoil is developing itselfinto a broad energy company in line with global developments inthe energy sector," Oil and Energy Minister Terje Soeviknes toldReuters.

Statoil said it expects to invest 15-20 percent of capitalspending by 2030 in what it calls new energy solutions, up fromabout 5 percent last year.

Saetre declined to say how much Statoil was planning tospend on renewables in 2018, but the company has said previouslythat spending for renewable and low-carbon solutions areexpected to total $500 million to $750 million from 2017 to 2020and $750 million to $1.5 billion for the 2020-2025 period.

Statoil developed the world's first floating offshore windpark off Scotland and is looking to install others off countriesincluding the United States and Japan.($1 = 7.6899 Norwegian crowns)

(Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo and StineJacobsen in Copenhagen Writing by Gwladys FoucheEditing by Edmund Blair and David Goodman)