The acquisition of North American Oil Sands Corporation (NAOSC) represents a significant step in the development of StatoilHydro's long-term production business.
Through the acquisition, we have gained access to 1,110 square kilometres of
oil sands leases in the boreal forests of the Athabasca region in Alberta.
Following the merger with Hydro's oil and gas division, the company's new name is StatoilHydro Canada Ltd. It has four large, contiguous lease areas: Leismer, Corner, Hangingstone and Thornbury. The project is called Kai Kos Dehseh, and altogether the leases contain around 2.2 billion barrels of bitumen.
Leismer is the first project to be developed, and Geir Jøssang, president of
StatoilHydro Canada Ltd., underlines the fact that the oil sands resources will not be produced through open-pit mining.
Geir Jøssang, president of StatoilHydro Canada Ltd.
"We will apply a technique called Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD).
This involves drilling horizontal pairs of wells, and injecting steam into the upper horizontal well in each pair. The condensate water and heated bitumen drain into the lower well, and are then pumped to the surface," Mr Jøssang explains.
The SAGD method leaves a much smaller environmental footprint than mining
operations, but SAGD still involves challenges, such as water and land use, and carbon dioxide emissions.
"We will be using saline water from a deep geological formation not used for
other purposes," says Mr Jøssang. He points out that the goal is to recycle all
the water.
"Our long-term ambition is to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions compared with the carbon emission intensity that is typical today," says Mr Jøssang:
"We have started a comprehensive project in which we will study all possible options for reducing or offsetting carbon dioxide emissions.
This study will form the basis for our carbon dioxide strategy. We are serious about this, and that is why we have to do our homework properly before we decide on a specific plan of action."
