Equinor's Hammerfest LNG Plant Evacuated Due to Gas Leak
April 23, 2024
Equinor's Hammerfest LNG plant in Arctic northern Norway was evacuated on Tuesday due to a gas leak that occurred during maintenance, the company said in a statement.
Production at Europe's largest LNG export facility had been halted at the time due to the ongoing work, the company said.
"The leak has been stopped," an Equinor spokesperson said.
The 54 people that were at the plant when the leak occurred had all been accounted for. It was too early to say whether the incident would cause a delay to future production, the company added.
There were no reports of injuries and no risk to the general population in the area, local police said separately.
Work was ongoing to establish the cause of the incident, the police added.
Hammerfest LNG, also known as Melkoeya, has the capacity to deliver about 6.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year, enough to supply about 6.5 million European homes, and accounts for 5% of all Norwegian gas exports.
Norway is Europe's largest supplier of natural gas following a sharp reduction in Russian deliveries since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
The Melkoeya plant receives its gas via a pipeline from the Snoehvit offshore gas field. Its owners are Equinor, Petoro, TotalEnergies, Vaar Energi and Wintershall Dea.
(Reuters - Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Nora Buli; editing by Jason Neely)
