Page 13 - Euroil Week 43 2020

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Hammerfest LNG restart could

take a year

NORWAY THE Hammerfest LNG plant in northern “The fire at Hammerfest LNG was a serious
Norway could take up to 12 months to restart, incident,” Equinor’s senior vice-president for
Norway’s only LNG operator Equinor has said, following a “dra- onshore facilities, Grete Haaland, said in a state-
terminal produces matic” fire that broke out at the facility in late ment this week. “The various investigations into
around 5.6mn tonnes September. the incident will be important in order to iden-
per year of super-cooled Beyond the damage caused by the fire to the tify measures that will prevent similar incidents
gas. air intake at one of the plant’s five power tur- from happening again.”
bines, seawater used to extinguish the blaze has Equinor added it would use the shutdown
also damaged other auxiliary systems such as period to carry out other maintenance and repair
electrical equipment and cables, Equinor said work planned for 2021. This includes ongoing
on October 26. work and a maintenance turnaround scheduled
The shutdown’s duration will hinge on the for next spring. The plant underwent a five-week
delivery time of necessary equipment and also period of maintenance earlier this year between
restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavi- May 15 and June 22.
rus (COVID-19) pandemic, the company said. Hammerfest LNG is one of a number of
Inspections are ongoing, but Equinor’s best LNG facilities globally that have had to deal with
estimate is that Hammerfest LNG will be offline outages recently. A train at Chevron’s Gorgon
until October 1, 2021. terminal in Western Australia remains offline
Norway’s only LNG terminal produces while cracks on propane heat exchangers are
around 5.6mn tonnes per year (tpy) of super- being repaired. Two more trains are due to go
cooled gas using the offshore Snohvit field as its offline at different points next year so that their
resource base. Equinor also operates Snohvit, weld quality can be checked. Meanwhile, Royal
joined by partners Total, Neptune Energy, Win- Dutch Shell is struggling to resume operations
tershall Dea and Petoro. at the Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) project in
Equinor previously said Hammerfest LNG Australia, which went offline in February after
would return to operations at the start of 2021. an electric trip.
The company, Norway’s Petroleum Safety US Gulf of Mexico terminals have also suf-
Authority (PSA) and the Norwegian police are fered recent disruptions owing to a series of
all investigating the cause of the blaze. storms. ™

Week 43 29•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13