Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant extends outage until May 23

Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant faces more delay before it can restart production following a fire in 2020, Norwegian gas system manager Gassco said in a regulatory filing on Monday. The plant, which is operated by Equinor, is now expected to resume output on May 23, the filing showed, six days later than the previous goal of restarting on May 17.

Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant faces more delays before it can restart production following a fire in 2020, Norwegian gas system manager Gassco said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The plant, which is operated by Equinor, is now expected to resume output on May 23, the filing showed, six days later than the previous goal of restarting on May 17. Europe's only large-scale LNG plant, at Melkoeya island just outside the Arctic town of Hammerfest, can process 18 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas per day when fully operational.

The plant has been out of service since September of 2020 following a blaze that raised concerns over safety practices. At Melkoeya, gas is piped in from the offshore Snoehvit field, 160 km (100 miles) away in the Barents Sea. The field was forced to shut as a result of the plant's closure.

In January, Equinor said more than 22,000 components had undergone checks since the fire, and that 180 km of electrical cables had been replaced.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)