Snøhvit

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Melkøya LNG gas terminal

Snøhvit (German Snow White ), also Snøhvitfeltet , is the fifth largest Norwegian gas field - operated by the Equinor group (formerly Statoil ). It actually consists of the three individual fields Snøhvit , Albatros and Askeladd , which, however, have become part of a joint development plan. The deposits were discovered in 1984 and are located about 140 km northwest of Hammerfest on the Norwegian continental shelf in the Barents Sea .

overview

It is estimated that the field contains recoverable quantities of natural gas in the order of 160 billion Sm³ ( standard cubic meters ) and with a carbon dioxide content of 5–8%, which are to be extracted for the production of liquefied natural gas . An annual volume of 5.75 billion m³ of liquefied natural gas is assumed, plus 747,000 tons of natural gas condensate and 247,000 tons of liquid gas . There is also a thin oil zone. The reservoirs are located in sandstones of the lower and middle Jurassic.

The heart of the system is a 9 × 154 × 54 m large and 10,000 ton barge , which is equipped with a 25,000 ton process plant for gas liquefaction. It was installed on the island of Melkøya near Hammerfest. The barge left its shipyard near Puerto Real , Cádiz in southwestern Spain in June 2005 and was transported to its location by the semi-submersible ship Blue Marlin , where it arrived in late September and was installed there until summer 2006.

The production flow , which consists of various liquid natural gas condensate phases, is brought to the processing plant through a 143 km long and 68 cm thick submarine pipeline . This pipeline is known as the longest multiphase pipeline in the world. At Melkøya the phases are separated and processed. This is where the control devices and a cooling system are located, with which the extracted natural gas is cooled. It is the first gas production system in Norway that works entirely without production platforms on the sea surface.

Installation

The plant went into operation in autumn 2007. After a few weeks it was switched off due to technical start-up problems. Operation was resumed on January 25, 2008 and has now reached 100% capacity (as of March 2009).

The heart of the system was designed and delivered by Linde . The refrigeration circuits for cooling the gas were successfully optimized with regard to availability and energy consumption.

The costs were originally estimated at 51 billion crowns (over 6 billion euros ). The actual cost was estimated at SEK 60 billion in February 2008. These high investment sums should pay for themselves within a few years due to long-term supply contracts.

environment

The flaring of natural gas released 1 million tons of CO 2 and 2,200 tons of soot by January 2008 . These had an additional greenhouse effect like 3.5 million tons of CO 2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SNØHVIT GAS FIELD, BARENTS SEA, NORWAY ( Memento from December 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Information page of the Norwegian Hydrocarbon Administration (npd) ( Memento from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Ingplants.com
  4. ↑ Yngve Hellestøl: Rådvill Statoil sjef om Snøhvit. e24.no/naeringsliv, February 27, 2008, accessed October 3, 2014 (Norwegian).
  5. ↑ Snohvit LNG Export Terminal, Melkoya Island, Hammerfest, Norway ( Memento from April 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Reinhar Wolff: Gas torch promotes the melting of the ice. In: taz. January 25, 2008, accessed October 3, 2014 .

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