StatOilHydro to Protect Arctic or Stay Out - Chairman
Date: 26-Sep-07
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
"It shouldn't be and will not be tolerated by any society
that you harm this sensitive environment," Eivind Reiten told a
group of foreign reporters. "On the other hand the drive for
finding more energy means more exploration in these areas."
Reiten said StatoilHydro, to be formed from Oct. 1 and which
will be among Europe's top five oil producers, would try to
develop a competitive advantage in the Arctic by exploiting oil
and gas only if it had a "significant" safety margin.
"We have to develop our skills faster than others. Unless we
do I don't think we will have a licence to operate there," he
said, adding that a spill would set the industry back many
years.
Reiten will be the chairman of StatoilHydro, formed by
uniting state-controlled Statoil with the oil and gas division
of Norsk Hydro. Reiten will keep his current job as chief
executive of Hydro, which will focus on aluminium.
The Arctic is likely to open ever more in coming decades as
polar ice shrinks because of global warming widely blamed on
greenhouse gases emitted by rising use of fossil fuels.
RUSSIAN FLAG
Some US official estimates project that the Arctic could
hold a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas
resources. Russia planted a flag on the seabed beneath the North
Pole last month in a symbolic claim.
Statoil opened its first offshore Arctic field last week,
the US$10 billion Snoehvit liquefied natural gas project in the
Barents Sea.
Oil spills take longer to break down in the Arctic because
of the chill temperatures and many animals are vulnerable
because they live on the edge of their ranges. Oil companies
lack technology to clean up spills that get trapped in sea ice.
Awareness of the vulnerability of the region was "growing
for good reasons faster than actually the need for energy,"
Reiten said. He pointed to threats to species such as polar
bears that depend on ice for hunting seals.
StatoilHydro is also hoping for a role in helping Russia to
develop the huge Shtokman gas field. Asked if StatoilHydro would
be equally concerned to safeguard the Russian Arctic
environment, Reiten said:
"It's a huge misconception that crossing the border between
Russia from Norway brings you into water where environmental
concerns are not there." Hydro was working with Russian
scientists to study the ice and its movements, he said.
