Statoil Beefs Up Efforts in Wind Power, CCS Tech

Statoil, a global energy production company, plans to bolster the Norwegian Continental Shelf’s position as the most energy-efficient petroleum in the world by improving energy efficiency and evaluating new field developments in terms of energy and the environment at its exploration & production Norway (EPN) business, according to the company’s annual and sustainability reports. The EPN business also plans to develop a more energy-efficient supply chain.

EPN plans to establish a Statoil heavy oil technology center in Canada that will focus on improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions, and reducing operating costs related to the production of heavy oil.

Statoil, which has oil sands operations in Alberta, Canada, recently announced plans to cut its emissions there by 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025.

The company’s six business units include EPN, international exploration & production (iNt), Natural gas (Ng), Manufacturing & Marketing (M&M), projects and procurement (pro) and technology & New energy (tNe).

Statoil is implementing efforts in new energy sources including biofuels and wind power and is developing carbon capture & storage (CCS) technologies for use in oil and gas production. As an example, a carbon capture and reinjection project is underway at one of its largest gas developments in In Salah, Algeria, aimed at proving the sustainability and reliability of carbon dioxide reinjection as a preferred solution for the reduction of carbon emissions. More than three million tons of carbon dioxide have been captured and stored, according to the annual report.

Statoil is also working with Gassnova, which represents the Norwegian government in issues relating to CCS, Sasol, and Shell, to build a center for carbon dioxide capture technologies at Mongstad, known as the European carbon dioxide Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM). Sasol has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the possibility of becoming a participant in the TCM.

The technology center’s demonstration plant aims to help suppliers develop more cost-efficient, environmentally friendly and safe technologies for carbon dioxide capture to handle emissions from different flue gases, such as gas power, coal power and refineries. The plant will have the capacity to capture up to 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which the company expects will lead to industrial-scale carbon dioxide capture. Start-up is expected at the end of 2011 or early 2012.

The global energy company is also building up a portfolio of near-shore and off-shore wind farms and is developing technology for large-scale deep water offshore wind power generation. Other new energy sources being evaluated include marine biofuels, geothermal, solar, hydrogen and other offshore renewables like wave and tidal energy.

As an example, Statoil, together with Norwegian power utility Statkraft, is building a 315-megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm off the coast of Norfolk, UK, at Sheringham Shoal. The UK wind farm, consisting of 88 turbines, will save an estimated half million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Production is scheduled to start in 2011.

Statoil is also a member of the Forewind consortium that plans to build the world’s largest wind power development in the Dogger Bank area of the North Sea. Targeted capacity is 9 gigawatts (GW), which will meet nearly 10 percent of the total electricity needs in the UK, according to the report. However, it was noted that the project could have an installed capacity as high as 13 GW. First investment decisions are expected some time after 2014.

In September last year, the company also launched its prototype of the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, which is designed to be placed at water depths between 120 and 700 meters. The prototype is undergoing testing for two years.