Production and sale of biological fuel will be pursued in Norway from next year by a joint venture between Statoil and Norske Skog.
The latter company, which ranks as a major Norwegian forest products group, will produce biofuel in pellet form at Brumunddal in eastern Norway. Statoil is to be responsible for marketing this product as an alternative fuel for households and industry.
"Norske Skog is Norway's largest producer and consumer of bioenergy, and we're the country's biggest energy group," comments project manager Geir Skjevrak in Marketing.
"We have a strong brand and a well-established sales organisation. Our collaboration with Norske Skog provides a good starting point for effective production and marketing of biofuel."
He notes that the pellets will represent a highly suitable fuel in environmental terms, not only competing with traditional oil products but also contributing to more flexible use of energy.
Waste from Norske Skog's parquet plant will provide the raw material for the Brumunddal facility, which can produce about 8,000 tonnes of biofuel per year.
Each pellet is about half the size of a sugar lump. Wood chips are dried and compressed under high pressure, and the resulting product contains no additives. Its energy content is two-five times higher than unprocessed wood.
Statoil initiated sales of biofuel pellets at a selection of its Swedish service stations this autumn. It has also tested them as fuel for a large district heating facility in an east Norwegian local authority.
Biofuel pellets are burnt in stoves for direct heating and in furnaces for large and small district heating plants.