LNG

Equinor, the operator of the Hammerfest LNG export plant in northern Norway, said that a gas leak occurred at the facility on Melkøya Island on May 31 and had been stopped, though it was too early to say when production would resume.

“Equinor’s emergency response organisation has been demobilised and the emergency services have left Melkøya,” said Equinor.

“The leak occurred in connection with a valve in one of the plant’s cooling circuits,” Equinor explained.

“The gas that leaked is used for cooling during production of LNG,” the company added.

Equinor’s emergency response organisation was immediately mobilised to face the incident and it was handled in collaboration with emergency services.

“Relevant authorities were notified. There were 98 people present at the plant when the incident occurred. All personnel are accounted for and no injuries were reported,” stated Equinor.

“It is too soon to say when production at the plant can be resumed,” Equinor added.

Fire recovery

A fire had previously occurred at the Hammerfest plant on September 28 in 2020 and led to a prolonged closure for repairs until mid-2022.

No one was hurt in the 2020 fire and much of the damage to the plant was caused by the sustained use of high-powered hoses to suppress the fire and stop it re-igniting.

Equinor concluded shortly afterwards that a fire had started in the filter housing of a gas turbine generator.

The fire investigation noted that the cause of the fire was spontaneous ignition in the filters in the turbine’s air inlets, caused by excessively high temperatures over a long period of time.

Feed-gas for the single-Train Hammerfest liquefaction facility comes from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea.

Hammerfest exports around 4.70 million tonnes of LNG and most of the volumes are delivered to European destinations like France, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania.

Most feed-gas for Hammerfest comes from a total of 20 wells in the Snøhvit and Albatross fields.

This output is transported to land through a 143-kilometre (89-mile) pipeline.

Equinor has 37 percent of the Snøhvit field and the LNG plant and the other large partners include French major TotalEnergies and Germany’s Wintershall Dea.

The Norwegian parliament, the Storting, has ordered the government to consider an alternative way to cut carbon emissions at Western Europe's largest liquefied natural gas export plant at Hammerfest and to consider the use of carbon capture instead of electrification.

Norwegian energy company Equinor said plans have been agreed to invest $1.33 billion in upgrading the Hammerfest LNG plant, Western Europe’s only baseload export facility, and to extend its lifespan towards 2050.

Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas major and main pipeline natural gas supplier to Europe amid diminishing Russian deliveries from Gazprom, will be an LNG trader with additional volumes supplied by the largest US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy.

Under a planned 15-year agreement Equinor will purchase around 1.75 million tonnes of LNG per annum from Houston-based Cheniere from 2026.

“This new Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) will add new volumes to Equinor’s already significant gas portfolio of pipeline gas and LNG,” stated Equinor.

The Norwegian company also disclosed that the expansion at Corpus Christi to add 10 MTPA to the current nameplate capacity of 13.5 MTPA will likely be followed by another boost in output.

“With global energy demand growing and increased focus on energy security, the LNG market is expected to grow significantly. US LNG can supply the European markets as well as cover demand in other markets,” explained Equinor.

The Stavanger, Norway-based oil and gas major has recently shipped the first cargo from the repaired Hammerfest in Northern Norway to re-established seaborne LNG supply link Europe.

New US volumes

It was the first cargo to leave the Hammerfest liquefaction and export plant since the September 2020 fire.

Once the Hammerfest is ramped up to full production of 4.8 MTPA, a ship will leave the facility on Melkøya island every five or six days and over the year will deliver 5 percent of Norway’s natural gas exports while the other 95 percent is delivered by pipelines.

Norway’s role as a key supplier to Europe has taken on more importance because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russian oil and gas.

The Hammerfest project gave Europe its first large-scale LNG supply when it came on stream in 2007, though the facility was originally planned and built to supply the US before the shale-gas boom.

“I am very pleased that we have entered into a long-term agreement with Cheniere, the largest US producer of LNG,” said Helge Haugane, Equinor’s senior vice president Gas & Power.

“Based on our production in Norway, Equinor is the second-largest supplier of pipeline gas to Europe. The new LNG agreement is a major building block in Equinor’s ambition to further strengthen our global gas position by adding more LNG to the portfolio,” Haugane explained.

Crucial role

“LNG will play a crucial role in providing energy security. By increasing our position in this segment, we will be even better positioned as a long-term reliable supplier of energy’ he stated.

Under the SPA, Equinor has agreed to purchase the volumes from Cheniere Marketing on a free-on-board basis whereby the Norwegians send their own ships.

Equinor said the deliveries under the SPA would start in the second half of 2026 and reach the full 1.75 MTPA in the second half of 2027.

“Half of the volume, or about 900,000 tonnes, is subject to Cheniere making a positive final investment decision to construct additional liquefaction capacity at the Corpus Christi LNG Terminal beyond the seven-Train Corpus Christi Stage III Project,” stated Equinor.

This suggests that the Cheniere, which operates the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana with 27 MTPA of production, is planning yet another expansion at the Texas facility.