Two months shutdown at Snøhvit
PHOTO: Even Edland / StatoilHydro
StatoilHydro’s LNG plant at Melkøya on the coast of the Barents Sea will stop production for at least two months from mid-August, reports Reuters.
The plant has been beset by teething troubles since the start-up in late 2007 and is currently running its production at reduced capacity.
“We plan to stop in August,” said Sverre Kojedal, spokesman for the Snøhvit development, to Reuters.
He added that the shutdown would take “at least two months” and maybe around 80 days, depending on the final extent of maintenance and modifications.
“We will replace the remaining sea water heat exchangers where we had some leakages which were one of the major problems since the start-up,” says Sverre Kojedal, spokesman for StatoilHydro interviewed by Reuters.
Snøhvit is the first offshore development in the Barents Sea.
Without surface installations, this project involves bringing natural gas to land for liquefaction and export from the first plant of its kind in Europe and the world’s northernmost liquefied natural gas facility.
Source: BarentsObserver.com
