Equinor to take steps to boost gas exports to Europe
Norwegian Equinor said March 16 it would work with its partners and Norwegian authorities to increase gas production from the Troll, Oseberg and Heidrun fields in the North Sea through the summer to reduce the potential impact of reduced supply from Russia.
“Our focus is to maintain safe and efficient operations on our facilities, remaining a reliable supplier of energy to the markets in Europe in a highly challenging situation,” said Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president, exploration and production, Norway. “In close dialogue with the authorities and our partners we are now taking steps to maintain the high production level from the winter.”
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Adjusted production permits from Norway’s ministry of petroleum and energy will allow Oseberg exports to rise by about 1bn m3 in the period up to September 30. Heidrun field exports will be allowed to increase by about 400mn m3 for calendar year 2022.
The additional 1.4bn m3 of gas supply will meet the needs of about 1.4 mn European homes for a year, Equinor said.
Equinor has also decided to postpone maintenance turnaround work at Oseberg until September in order to accelerate production. This will also result in turnaround work at the Sture terminal being postponed.
Norwegian authorities also approved Equinor’s application for an increase in the production permit for the Troll field to 38bn m3 for the current gas year (October 1-September 30), a measure that will enhance the “robustness” of production from fields exporting via the Kollsnes processing plant, as production from Troll can be increased by up to 1bn m3 in the event of curtailments from other fields.
Equinor also reminded that the Hammerfest LNG terminal, closed after a serious fire in September 2020, is expected back on-line in mid-May, providing more than 6bn m3/year of supply from the Barents Sea.
“In this highly challenging situation we do our utmost to deliver as much as possible to our customers, enabling them provide homes and companies with gas,” said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president, marketing, midstream and processing. “We are pleased that we, together with the authorities, our partners and Gassco, now ensure that we can export more gas this summer, while increasing the robustness of gas exports.”
Norway exported about 113.2bn m3 of gas to Europe in 2021 through the Gassco-operated systems, while fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf exporting through the pipeline network meet nearly 25% of UK and EU demand.