Establishing research centre in Canada

StatoilHydro’s Kai Kos Dehseh oil sands project is on the starting line but is expected to reach a production of 200,000 barrels per day in 2020. The project is based on steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) where steam is pumped down into deep-lying layers to make the oil flow. There is considerable potential to make the project more robust and further strengthened to meet the environmental challenges through the development and application of new technologies.

In creating the Heavy Oil Technology Centre (HOTC), StatoilHydro will explore academic partnerships and work with government and industry institutions, just as it has done in its operations in Norway and around the world.

“At StatoilHydro we place great emphasis on finding technological solutions to challenges and implementing them in our commercial projects,” says Geir Jøssang, president of StatoilHydro Canada.

“This is the first such transfer outside Norway of a unit from our R&D team and is an excellent opportunity for academic and technological exchange between Canada and Norway.”

“The HOTC is at a very early stage, but we believe that only through technology development can we as an industry address the major challenges in making oil sands development environmentally sustainable.”

StatoilHydro Canada’s activities include production offshore Newfoundland and Labrador at the Hibernia and Terra Nova fields. In 2007 the company acquired North American Oil Sands Corporation with over 1,100 square kilometres of oil sand leases in northern Alberta. The company is currently developing the Leismer SAGD demonstration project which will have a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day in 2010.