Equinor (Norway) shuts down its liquefied gas plant due to a gas leak
In a blow to European supplies, Norwegian energy multinational Equinor closed its Hammerfest LNG, liquefied natural gas, plant on Wednesday due to a gas leak.
The Hammerfest plant has been evacuated and no staff injuries were reported, an Equinor spokesman told Reuters , confirming a police report into the incident earlier in the day.
"The leak has been identified and work is being done to establish the extent of it," local police said early Wednesday. Local firefighters also responded to the incident, police added.
It was not immediately clear when the plant will be able to resume operations.
Hammerfest, which at full capacity accounts for 5% of Norway's natural gas exports, has been plagued by accidents and operational problems in recent years.
Hammerfest LNG, which receives gas from the Snøhvit field operated by Equinor, was offline for a year and a half after a fire at the plant in September 2020. The plant, the only large-scale LNG export facility in Europe , resumed operations in March 2022.
The rig was again decommissioned in early May 2023, due to a compressor failure, and was out of service until 19 May. It was also closed in March due to a previous leak. So Norway's only liquefied gas plant certainly doesn't shine in terms of reliability, limiting the Nordic country's capabilities in this sector.
In December 2022, Equinor submitted a Snøhvit Future Development and Operations Plan (PDO) to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy on behalf of the Snøhvit partnership. Snøhvit's partners will invest NOK 13.2 billion ($1.17 billion) in upgrading Hammerfest LNG, HLNG, plant at Melkøya.
Snøhvit Future is expected to strengthen Norway's position as a reliable and long-term supplier of LNG to Europe. According to Equinor, the project will ensure long-term operations and gas exports from Melkøya until 2050.
Norway's Equinor is now the main natural gas supplier to Europe after Russia's Gazprom cut off most of its supplies to the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine early last year.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles from Economic Scenarios.
The article Equinor (Norway) closes its liquefied gas plant due to a gas leak comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/equinor-norvegia-chiude-il-suo-impianto-di-gas-liquefatto-per-una-fuga-di-gas/ on Thu, 01 Jun 2023 06:00:03 +0000.