Equinor’s Norwegian LNG Plant Likely Shuttered for a Week

Europe’s largest LNG export facility shut down unexpectedly Jan. 2 after a compressor failure, Reuters reported.

Equinor, the owner of Norway’s Hammerfest LNG, expects the outage to last to Jan. 9 as repairs are made.  The stoppage occurred after a compressor that injects CO2 into the ground at the arctic site failed.

Hammerfest is the oldest and largest LNG export plant in Europe, starting operations in 2007, according to Equinor’s web site. The plant, located on the northern tip of Norway, processes gas from the nearby offshore Snøhvit gas field.

The plant plays a key role in European gas supply, with a capacity of 6.5 Bcm of LNG a year, according to Equinor.