In creating the Heavy Oil Technology Centre (HOTC), StatoilHydro will reportedly explore academic partnerships and work with government and industry institutions, as it has done in its operations in Norway and around the world.
Concurrently, StatoilHydro’s Kai Kos Dehseh oil sands project is on the starting line but is expected to reach production of 200,000 barrels per day in 2020. StatoilHydro said that there is considerable potential to make the project more robust and strengthen it to meet environmental challenges through the development and application of new technologies at the HOTC.
Geir Jossang, president of StatoilHydro Canada, said: The HOTC is at a very early stage, but we believe that only through technology development can we as an industry address the major challenges in making oil sands development environmentally sustainable.
