Norway frets over StatoilHydro environmental impact

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim expressed concern on Friday about the environmental impact of investments by oil group StatoilHydro in countries including Canada and the United States.

Solheim told Reuters that StatoilHydro, which is 62.5 percent state owned, should follow the same environmental standards abroad as it does on Norwegian oil and gas fields — a move which would boost costs for the $97 billion energy group.


But he made clear the government was “not in a position” to demand specific actions from StatoilHydro when it operated abroad.

StatoilHydro has stirred controversy in environmentally-aware Norway by investing in energy-intensive Canadian oil sands and a pristine area of the Chukchi Sea off Alaska in past months.

Reuters