Equinor's Leak-Hit Melkoya Plant Switched Off Indefinitely

Equinor ASA’s liquefied natural gas plant on the Norwegian island of Melkøya suffered a leakage Wednesday, the company said, possibly derailing a planned expansion.

Though the leak has been stopped and normalization was underway as of Thursday, Equinor said, “It is too soon to say when production at the plant can be resumed”.

The damage involved a valve in one of the facility’s cooling circuits. “The gas that leaked is used for cooling during production of liquid natural gas (LNG)”, it said in a press release.

All 98 personnel present at the time of the incident were accounted for with no injuries reported, according to Equinor.

The majority state-owned owner plans to electrify the plant to raise its processing capacity and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 850,000 metric tons a year, according to Equinor’s annual report March 23.

The plant had just resumed operation June 2022 after a fire in September 2020.

Equinor sees the project in the northern town of Hammerfest as key to reducing its planet-warming emissions. It serves the Snøhvit gas and condensate field, which operator Equinor (36.79 percent) calls the biggest industrial project in Norway, via a 99.4-mile (160 kilometers) pipeline. The field on the Barents Sea produced 28,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2022, down by 20, 000 boed in 2019 before shutdown by the 2020 fire. The field’s planned electrification aims to ensure operation and exports from Melkøya into 2050.

Equinor reported eight incidents of oil and gas leaks at the “serious” level, which it defines as having a leakage rate of at least 2.2 pounds (0.1 kilogram) per second, in 2022. “This is the lowest number of leaks ever recorded and came close to achieving our ambitious 2022 target of a maximum of seven leaks. No serious well control incident recorded”, its annual report stated.

In April a Reuters report citing an unnamed Equinor spokesperson said its Njord A oil and gas platform had a leak of less than 200 liters. The Norwegian Sea facility resumed operation the day after on April 18, the spokesperson said according to Reuters.

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