On 28 September Equinor was notified about a fire in a turbine at the Hammerfest LNG at Melkøya, Norway at about 1530 hours. No personnel have been reported injured or missing, and all employees who are not participating in the emergency response have been evacuated.
Hammerfest LNG was shut down in accordance with its emergency protocols, and Equinor’s emergency response organization mustered to provide support in handling the situation.
Later in the day Equinor reported that there are no longer visible flames at the LNG-plant and that work is ongoing to cool down the area where the fire occurred.
Hammerfest LNG, outside Hammerfest in Finnmark county, is a facility that receives and processes natural gas from the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea. The gas is conveyed in a 160 km gas pipeline to the facility, which became operational in the autumn of 2007. Equinor was the operator during the development phase and now has operational responsibility for the facility.
Snøhvit is the first development in the Barents Sea, and the first major development on the Norwegian continental shelf with no surface installations. Large quantities of natural gas are brought onshore and cooled down at the most northerly export facility for LNG, Liquefied Natural Gas.
(Source and image: Equinor – Hammerffest LNG plant at Melkoya)