Norwegian-based oil and gas firm StatoilHydro has decided to shelve its planned oilsands upgrader, citing prohibitive costs, the state of the global economy, uncertain oil price outlook, and a lack of legislative clarity. StatoilHydro joins a number of oilsands players to delay or scrap their plans in recent months in response to tumbling oil prices and shaky financial markets. In November 2008, the partners in the Fort Hills oilsands project – Petro-Canada, UTS Energy Corp., and Teck Cominco – announced that they are going to put off a final decision on the mining portion of the development into next year and are deferring its accompanying USD 10-billion upgrader indefinitely. Suncor Energy Inc. is spending about a third less next year than this year as it delays work on its Voyageur upgrader by about a year. Decisions on future expansions to Nexen Inc. and Opti Canada Inc.’s joint Long Lake oilsands project as well as Royal Dutch Shell’s Athabasca oilsands project have also been deferred. In addition, privately held Value Creation Inc. has halted construction on its Heartland upgrader near Edmonton, Alberta.