For decades to come, fossil fuel will remain the dominant means of meeting the increasing global demand for energy. To avoid harmful global warming due to the increase in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the EU and governments all over the world are committed to cutting emissions stemming from fossil fuels.
Policies that stipulate more stringent requirements for energy efficiency and lower emissions provide incentives for the production of renewable energy and may mandate carbon dioxide capture and long-term storage, putting pressure on the oil and gas industry to improve performance and to look for additional low-carbon business opportunities in addition to traditional oil and gas activities.
New hydrocarbon reserves are also hard to find, thus driving operations to remote frontier areas far from the markets, or into energy-demanding and environmentally challenging heavy oil.
In both cases, emissions per unit of output will increase compared with operations on the Norwegian continental shelf, where StatoilHydro has dominated operations.
We are exposed to these changes to a large extent as we expand internationally. Heavy oil production from Venezuela and oil sands in Alberta reaches the market from remote areas. Production in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and the production of LNG for more distant gas markets exposes the company to higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of output, which means we must consider new solutions in order to limit emissions.
