In addition to technological development in field development projects, a significant part of Statoil's research is carried out at centres for research and
technology development in Trondheim, Bergen, Porsgrunn in Norway and Calgary in Canada. The research and development is carried out in close cooperation with universities, research institutions, other operators and the supplier industry. Research and development expenditures were NOK 2.1 billion in 2009.

The technology strategy is driven by our key business challenges, aiming to build even stronger industry positions. Technology is a key enabler to achieving this and will make significant contributions to field development in frontier deep waters and Arctic areas, heavy oil production, subsalt exploration, and environmental and climate issues. The ambition is to achieve distinctiveness and industry leadership in selected technologies and to stay competitive in a broad range of core and emerging technologies along the energy provision value chain.

Furthermore, improved oil and gas recovery and improved drilling and well solutions are important to successfully fight declining production from mature
fields. Statoil has achieved some of the petroleum industry's highest recovery factors on the NCS by combining scientific and engineering capabilities and
boldly introducing new technology. We intend to further advance the most important technologies to meet our improved oil recovery ambitions.