Equinor and partners to invest $1.3 B in Norway LNG upgrade

12/20/2022

(Reuters) - Equinor and its partners in the Arctic Snoehvit gas field will invest 13.2 B Norwegian crowns ($1.34 B) to upgrade the Hammerfest liquefied natural gas plant, which processes the output, the government and companies said on Tuesday.

Hammerfest LNG, also known as Melkoeya, delivers 6.5 B cubic meters (Bcm) of gas per year, enough to cover energy demand for about 6.5 million European homes, or 5% of all Norwegian gas exports, the companies said.

Equinor and its partners plan to install onshore gas compressor units at Melkoeya, which will extend plateau production from Snoehvit, they said.

"These investments, which allow us to utilise the capacity at Hammerfest LNG for decades to come, are key to ensuring Norway remains a long-term, predictable supplier," Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland said in a statement.

The companies will also replace the Hammerfest plant's gas turbine generators with an onshore power connection, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 850,000 tpy.

The electrification plans also mean that transmission system operator Statnett will build a high-voltage power line to Hammerfest.

"The project will secure long-term operations and gas exports from Melkoeya towards 2050," Geir Tungesvik, Equinor's head of projects, drilling & procurement, said in a separate statement.

The owners of Snoehvit are Equinor (36.79%), Petoro (30%), TotalEnergies (18.40%), Neptune Energy (12%) and Wintershall Dea (2.81%).

($1 = 9.8846 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis Editing by Terje Solsvik and David Goodman )