Statoil has signed a collaboration agreement with the Danish company Russian Carbon Fund (RCF) to buy emission quotas for greenhouse gases in Russia. The deal will help meet quota obligations and fulfil the Kyoto protocol.
RCF will facilitate and finance a pilot project aimed at reducing leakages in the gas distribution network in the Kursk area of Russia, close to the Ukrainian border. The company has an agreement with the state owners of the network in that region.
The project will help find out how much of the greenhouse gas methane leaks from the network. It will then be possible to determine the size of the quotas this represents once the leaks have been repaired.
Russian companies will perform the repair work in collaboration with RCF.
The Norwegian company ECON Carbon has been engaged by RCF to prepare the necessary documentation, and the project is to be verified by classification society Det Norske Veritas.
The quotas must be approved by the UN climate panel in accordance with the Kyoto protocol.