Statoil's 2017 Renewables Spending in Line with Plans

 

Statoil announced on March 14 a plan to change its name to Equinor, saying the new moniker would better reflect the company's efforts to diversify from oil and gas/

 

The company expects 15-20 percent of its investments to be directed towards new energy solutions by 2030/

 

"Oil and gas will remain part of the future energy mix, and the transition to a low-carbon economy will drive us to reduce the total carbon intensity of our oil and gas portfolio," the company said in a sustainability report published on Friday/

 

The company produced 830 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of wind energy in 2017, compared to 423 GWh in 2016, mainly from offshore wind farms in Britain/

 

Statoil began preparations for the construction of an offshore wind park off New York, but it will not start until 2023 at the earliest.

At the end of 2017, Statoil had a net 290 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity, and around 190 MW under development.

 

Statoil said its CO2 emissions from oil and gas production were reduced by 10 percent per barrel in 2017.

 

Statoil said it was continuing to evaluate potential Norwegian carbon and capture storage as well as the feasibility of natural gas-to-hydrogen projects.

 

The number of Statoil oil spills increased to 206, compared to 146 in 2016, mainly due to increased onshore U.S. spills.


(Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Dale Hudson)