Statoil starts produciion from Snøhvit

Statoil commenced production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Hammerfest LNG plant, northern Norway. After five years of development, the most northerly gas liquefaction plant in the world has come on stream.

At the heart of the plant is the cooling system based on technology developed in collaboration between Statoil and Linde. The German industrial group has also been the main contractor during the development phase.

On 21 August the valves were opened on the Snøhvit wells in the Barents Sea and gas flowed through the 143-kilometre pipeline to land and in to the plant at Melkøya, where the well flow is separated into natural gas and condensate.

The natural gas then undergoes a cooling process where it is gradually cooled to minus 163 degrees Celsius. It is in this process that the gas is transformed into LNG.

The LNG is stored on an intermediary basis in two large tanks at Melkøya.

When the plant is in full production, one special carrier will arrive at Melkøya every five or six days to collect LNG and transport it to customers in Europe and the USA.

Licensees in the Snøhvit field are Statoil with a 33.53% interest, Petoro (30.00%), Total E&P Norge (18.40%), Gaz de France (12.00%), Hess Norge (3.26%) and RWE Dea with 2.81%.