His career started as an accountant at Kongsberg Vaabenfabrik in 1975 where he stayed until 1987, by which time he had become vice president.

He has also had a number of board positions, including chairman of NSB (Norwegian State Railways) from 2000 to 2003,[1] in Eastern Drilling and Lindorff.

In his last period as CFO in Kongsberg, he had massive problems internally because of the company's economic fall and felt that the press was excessive and critical.

Statoil was fined 20 million kr for corruption from the Norwegian National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime.

[3] In December 2005 Fjell won the court case, and he can expect[needs update] payments from Statoil up to about NOK 40 million.