Norway plans to build a 5.2 billion-kroner ($812 million) research center for developing technology to capture carbon dioxide from burned fossil fuels as a way of combating global warming, the oil minister announced Friday.
"This is a milestone in developing technology for CO2 capture," said Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Riis-Johansen. "It is a difficult project, but it is crucial that we succeed because handling CO2 is a critical tool in fighting global warming."
The plan was presented as a proposal seeking parliament's approval to invest in the center. However, the center-left coalition government controls a majority in parliament, making that approval appear to be a formality.
The research center is to be opened at the Mongstad oil refinery and natural gas power plant in western Norway to develop systems for capturing carbon dioxide from gas burned at the site. A statement said the center would be operational in about 2 1/2 years, and that details would be settled by late 2009.
The Norwegian state will own 80 percent and the state-controlled oil company StatoilHydro ASA will have 20 percent, although additional partners can also buy into the government's stake.
Norway is a major exporter of oil and natural gas, and had been actively seeking ways to reduce its own climate-damaging emissions. The statement said Norway also hopes that technology developed at Mongstad can help reduce emissions in other countries.
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