LNG

Norwegian oil and gas company and LNG export plant operator Equinor has submitted a fast-track plan to the government for development and operation of the Eirin natural gas field gas field in the North Sea that will provide more supplies to the Europe.

Norway’s oil and gas company Equinor and partners in a block Norwegian Sea have decided to invest almost US$1 billion to bring six new natural gas fields on stream as the LNG export plant at Hammerfest in Northern Norway also started up again.

Norwegian energy company Equinor, whose Hammerfest LNG plant comes back on stream in mid-May 2022, said “unprecedented” European natural gas prices in the second half resulted in record high annual and fourth-quarter adjusted earnings after gas output was boosted.

TechnipFMC is continuing its development of challenging hydrocarbon fields as a subsea operator around the world after the spin-off of the TechnipFMC LNG engineering division, now operating as a separate company, TechnipEnergies.

Norway, the LNG producer whose export plant at Hammerfest is still offline after last year’s fire, has offered four production licences in the Government’s 25th licensing round split between seven energy companies and with one block located in the Norwegian Sea and three in the Barents Sea.

The 25th licensing round is facilitating exploration and production activity on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

“This is important for employment and value creation in the Norwegian oil and gas industry,” said Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru.

“The (licence) allocations are in line with the goals we presented in the White Paper Energy for Work. They are also an important part of the framework conditions for the companies on the NCS,” added Minister Bru.

The 25th licensing round had been announced on November 19, 2020 and the application deadline was February 23, 2021.

Companies could apply for licences in nine different areas, eight in the Barents Sea and one in the Norwegian Sea.

The successful companies have committed to acquiring 3D seismic surveys and to initiate some wildcat drilling.

Two licences were awarded to Norwegian state-backed company Equinor, operator of Hammerfest LNG, now shut until March 2022 after the fire on September 28 in 2020.

The first Equinor licence (50 percent stake and operator) is in partnership with state company Petoro AS (20 percent), Sweden-based company Lundin Energy (20 percent) and Idemitsu Petroleum, part of the Idemitsu Group of Japan (10 percent).

The sole Norwegian Sea licence went to the UK’s Ineos (60 percent) and in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell.

Their 1055-B block is located between two previous large natural gas finds.

The two other Barents Sea licences were awarded to Equinor with Lundin Energy and Petero, and one went to Austria’s OMV (30 percent) with Vår Energi (70 percent and operator), a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and the private equity investor HitecVision.

Equinor, Europe’s second-largest natural gas supplier after Russian company Gazprom, has received approval from the government to reduce gas production at one of its key fields amid surplus pipeline gas and LNG supplies in Europe and near record production in the Norwegian Continental Shelf.