Statoil Sets Tougher Goal to Curb CO2 Emissions
Norway's Statoil (STO) set a new goal on Wednesday to improve the efficiency of its oil and gas operations by 2020 to help restrict the company's rising carbon dioxide emissions.
Statoil increased its goal for averting emissions through tougher efficiency measures by 50 percent to a cumulative 1.2 million tonnes from 2008-2020 from an existing target of 800,000.
"In Norway, we produce oil and gas with half of the carbon dioxide emissions per unit compared to the global industry average," said Arne Sigve Nylund, executive vice president, Development and Production Norway.
"Our current measures to reduce emissions will be one of our key competitive advantages in the future, as environmental requirements become increasingly stringent," he said in a statement.
Statoil said it was revising up the figure because it was already close to achieving its 800,000 tonne target by measures such as reduced flaring.
Statoil's 2014 sustainability report says the company's overall emissions of carbon dioxide rose to 15.3 million tonnes in 2014 from 15.1 million in 2013, driven by rising production, and from 13.1 million in 2009.
The company says about 85 percent of emissions are in Europe. Statoil also said it paid 3.4 billion Norwegian crowns ($395.80 million) in carbon dioxide taxes in Norway in 2014 and 0.7 billion crowns in other environmental taxes, including costs of traded carbon quotas.
(Reporting By Alister Doyle)
