Margareth Øvrum, executive vice president of technology and new energy at StatoilHydro.

Every operator has had to evaluate its E&D program in light of the current economic environment. Some have put off awarding contracts. Some have shied away from buying new acreage. Others have put projects on hold.

At the GE Oil & Gas conference in Florence, Italy, in January, Margareth Øvrum, executive vice president of technology and new energy at StatoilHydro, said her company’s objectives have stayed the same, despite trying financial times when the oil price has collapsed and access to cash is tight. “We face a situation few predicted,” she said, “but we have the strength to handle this situation. Uncertainty does not change our long-term view.”

The key, Øvrum said, is to “find the right balance” to contend with present volatility while preparing for the future.

For StatoilHydro, the future depends on increasing international growth and developing technology that will allow the company to develop reserves in the Arctic, reach reservoirs that are under high pressure and high temperature, extract more value from the oil sands, and stave off falling production on the Norway Continental Shelf.

The company is investing in technologies for deepwater that target deeper drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and harsh-environment technologies that will open the far north, facilitating developments such as the Shtockman field in the Barents Sea. A pioneer in developing heavy oil, StatoilHydro will continue to push the boundaries of this technology in the hope of economically producing fields like Peregrino offshore Brazil and will invest in maximizing the gas value chain to capitalize on investments like Shah Deniz II offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea.

“Our R&D funding for 2009 will be at the same level as 2008 despite the financial crisis,” Øvrum said. That level is relatively high at NOK 2.2 billion.

The culture at StatoilHydro is to maximize the return on its R&D investment by finding partners with similar goals. “We want to cooperate with companies that are world leaders,” Øvrum said. “Oil companies and suppliers are interdependent.”

Sometimes partnership takes the form of joint industry projects, and sometimes the partnership is an agreement with an individual company.

In the case of StatoilHydro’s partnership with GE Oil & Gas, there was a lot of commonality. This agreement, which has been in place since 2007, is the only one of its kind for StatoilHydro, Øvrum said.

Joint research efforts are targeting such things as effecting efficient power generation from gas, establishing viable renewable fuel alternatives (particularly wind energy and biofuels), and extending subsea technology. “My ultimate goal is to develop a full subsea processing platform by 2020,” Øvrum said.

It is evident that StatoilHydro has many long-term goals for technology and that the company is a firm believer in decided that investing in the future.

“The whole business is facing significant challenges today,” Øvrum said, “but we can’t wait until the turmoil passes to invest in technology. Success for the future depends heavily on developing new technologies today.”