LNG

Statoil has yet again had an unscheduled shutdown of its Hammerfest LNG plant in Northern Norway, the sole European baseload production facility, because of technical problems.

Statoil said output at the single-Train with nameplate capacity of 4.3 million tonnes per annum was stopped because of a power failure.

The Hammerfest plant, located on Melkoya Island and which receives feed-gas from the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea, has been afflicted with technical problems since it began production in 2007.

Statoil recently announced that it had cancelled plans to build a second liquefaction Train at the Hammerfest plant.

Explaining the latest unscheduled shutdown of production, Statoil said: "The incident resulted in the emergency response organisation being mobilised, and personnel were according to instructions evacuated from the inner area to the outer plant area. No one was injured during the incident.

"The plant was without power for about 20 minutes before it received power from the grid, and work to normalise activity is now being carried out.

"Production at Hammerfest LNG will remain shut down until the facility has been inspected and checked for any damage or malfunction," Statoil said.

The Norwegian company said a full investigation would be carried out by the authorities.