STATOILHYDRO AND NEXEN AGREE TO INCLUDE CLIMATE CHANGE IN THEIR SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMMES.

July 2nd 2008

During the Plenary 5 Session, “Advancing sustainability in the oil and gas industry”, Helge Lund President and CEO of StatoilHydro and Francis Saville Chairman of the Board of Nexen Inc discussed the present and future of sustainability programmes in their companies.

Climate change: challenge and business opportunity

During his speech, Helge Lund considered it necessary to incorporate climate change within the sustainability policies. It is fair to say that the majority of oil companies work with issues related to education, poverty eradication and environment, among others. Lund considers it vital that “both governments and the oil industry must take fast and effective actions in order to avoid acceleration of climate change.”

At StatoilHydro, its board of directors recognises that high production of carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by fuel combustion is the main reason of accelerated climate change. “In 2030 energy demand will increases by 55%, but also during this period of time CO2 emission will reach 57%.” Lund stated.

According to StatoilHydro executives, part of the solution to the problem mentioned above is to produce alternative energy as well as the increased use of natural gas as part of the energy mix. The company has increased it’s use of natural gas in Europe, and particularly in Norway. There StatoilHydro have the support of government policies that penalize citizens and industries that use vehicles producing high levels of CO2. At the same time, the Norwegian government provides incentives for both industry and citizens in order to increase the use of natural gas. “Thanks to this programme, pollution and damage to the ozone layer have been reduced.”

As a conclusion Lund stated that as well as encouraging the use of natural gas, his company is “leading a programme specializing in capture and storage of Co2. The development of a technology that permits us to extract CO2 from the air we breathe every day is expensive, but to improve the air we breathe everything is worth the effort.” said Lund.

Specific Corporative Social Responsibility policies (CSR) for each country

“When an oil company has more than 4000 employees in countries with opposite cultures such as Yemen, Colombia and Mexico we must apply different CSR policies for each region, as though it were a different world.” said Francis Saville chairman of the board Nexem Inc.

Saville outlined the highlights of the CSR programme that his company develop:

Water conservation: Water used by Nexen Inc. to chill excavation equipment is recycled, also the company designs programmes aimed to educate communities so that they save water. Finally the company creates technologies to purify and store drinkable water.

Community approach: According to Saville, the key factor for success is listening to citizens as well as trying anticipate the solutions before the local communities try to solve these problems by themselves.

Communication: Saville pointed out that challenges that the challenges faced by the company are investigated and gathered by, what he calls, “Superstakeholders”. This “superstakeholder” is in charge of contacting social groups that have minor representation (first nations groups, minor social groups and academics) in order to deal with problems in an efficient way.

Saville closed his speech by saying that “only when we understand that the investment in sustainability is reflected in business productivity, will we achieve results that benefit our citizens.”