OSLO, May 19 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Norwegian oil and gas producer StatoilHydro <STL.OL> overwhelmingly backed the company continuing its Canadian oil sands venture despite attempts by environmentalists to derail the project.

At its annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday, owners with 3.64 million shares voted for Greenpeace's resolution for StatoilHydro to withdraw from its $2 billion tar sands project, Greenpeace said. Investors representing a further 22 million shares abstained.

The figures correspond to 0.1 percent of total shares backing the oil sands exit and 0.7 percent abstaining.

Excluding the Norwegian government, which owns 67 percent of Statoil shares and voted against the motion, only 0.3 percent of free-float investors backed the plan and 2.1 percent abstained.

Tar sands have become a hot political issue in Norway four months before a general election, with the ruling Labour party saying that corporate governance standards did not allow it to "interfere" in Statoil's investment decisions. Activists said the state again chose oil interests over the environment.

Greenpeace said the voting results were nevertheless encouraging and that its campaign helped turn public sentiment against oil sands in Norway and its Nordic neighbours. A number of Swedish and Norwegian pension funds backed its motion.

"The way it looks now, we will be back next year trying to build on this," Greenpeace Norway boss Truls Gulowsen told Reuters. "This is not an issue which will simply go away."

Greenpeace is also aiming to activate financial investors to force fellow oil major Shell <RDSa.L> out of its tar sands project.

Green activists have long said tar sands are devastating for the environment and use too much energy. Oil companies, on the other hand, have snapped up tar sands prospects in past years partly to boost dwindling resource reserves.

Statoil bought 257,000 acres of oil sands leases in Alberta in 2007 to diversify from its ageing North Sea oilfields. Last year it dropped plans for a $12 billion refinery there. (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; Editing by Gary Hill)

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