The Energy Republic June Edition 2022

INDUSTRY NEWS
Equinor and Partners to Invest
NOK 9 billion for Gas Development
in the Norwegian Sea
Tom Elseth (left) (Equinor), Arild Stavnem (Petoro), Gunn Gadeholt (Spirit Energy), Geir Tungesvik
(Equinor), Terje Aasland (Minister of Petroleum and Energy) and Ørjan Jentoft (Vår Energi)
Equinor and Halten East partners
Vår Energi, Spirit Energy and
Petoro have decided to invest
about NOK 9 billion in the development
of the area neighbouring to the Åsgard
field in the Norwegian Sea.
The area consists of six gas and
condensate discoveries and option on
another three prospects. The
partnership today submits the plan for
development and operation to the
Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
estimated at almost 16 million Sm3 of oil
equivalent, or around 100 million barrels of
oil equivalent, 60 percent of which is gas
piped via Kårstø to Europe.
“Halten East is a subsea development
consisting of five subsea templates that will
be tied back to the existing infrastructure on
the Åsgard field, ensuring good resource
exploitation and high value creation, low
development costs, and low CO2
emissions,” says Randi Elisabet Hugdahl,
vice president, Åsgard operations.
Production
start-up at
Hammerfest
LNG
A
fter extensive repairs and improvement
work, Hammerfest LNG is back in
production after the fire in September
2020. The first liquified natural gas (LNG) is now
on tank at Melkøya.
“With the start-up of Hammerfest LNG, we add
further volume to the already substantial gas
deliveries from Norway. This is of great
significance in a period when predictable and
reliable supplies are highly important to many
countries and customers,” says Irene
Rummelhoff, Equinor ’s executive vice
president, Marketing, Midstream and
Processing.
Norway is an important gas supplier to Europe,
and the volumes from Hammerfest LNG
account for more than 5% of Norwegian gas
ex p o r t s . D u r i n g n o r m a l p ro d u c t i o n
Hammerfest LNG delivers around 6.5 billion
cubic metres per year, equivalent to the annual
gas demand of 6.5 million European
households.
“I would like to thank all employees, suppliers
and partners that have done a great job getting
the plant ready for safe start-up. This is a huge
and complicated task, with much of the project
work during a challenging pandemic," says
Rummelhoff.
“Gas is an important energy carrier for
Europe. Halten East utilises the existing
gas infrastructure on the Norwegian
continental shelf (NCS) and will add
important volumes that will generate
substantial value. The project is a good
example of how Equinor works with
partners and government authorities
across production licences to find smart
solutions for optimal resource
exploitation from the NCS,” says Geir
Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice
president, Projects, Drilling &
Procurement.
Halten East is a collective name for
several small-size discoveries and
prospects. Finding economically viable
development alternatives for each
individual project was difficult. In 2020
the licensees in the four licences
therefore agreed to develop the area as
a unit.
Recoverable reserves in Halten East are
The project is planned to be executed in two
phases. In the first phase of the
development, six wells will be drilled in the
period 2024-2025, whereas phase two is
p l a n n e d t o b e d e v e l o p e d i n
2029.Production start from the two first
wells is scheduled for 2025. Subsequently,
the wells will be put on stream as they are
completed.
Social spin-off effects in Norway
According to a spin-off study by Bodø
Science Park the national employment
effects in the development phase of Halten
East are estimated at slightly more than
3000 person-years of employment per year
over five years in the period 2022-2029.
More than 90 percent of the Halten East
investments go to suppliers resident in
Norway.
Partners: Equinor Energy AS (57.70% -
operator), Petoro AS (5.90%), Vår Energi AS
(24.60%) and Spirit Energy AS (11,80 %).
Repairs of sophisticated equipment and
compressors have been performed, in addition
to a scheduled turnaround and ordinary
maintenance. More than 22 000 components
have been checked, and 180 kilometres of
electric cables have been replaced. To minimize
infection spreading extensive infection control
measures and strict distancing rules have been
implemented. The plant is built for operation at
minus 163 degrees Celsius, and a controlled and
stepwise procedure is followed towards full
production.
The LNG tankers Arctic Voyager, Arctic Lady and
Arctic Princess are anchored up outside
Melkøya, ready to receive new cargoes from
Hammerfest LNG. Normally, it takes 4-5 days to
fill the storage tanks at the plant, before the
ships are loaded with LNG for shipping to
receiving terminals in various markets. In full
production, a ship will leave Melkøya
approximately every five days. Each ship
contains about 1 TW of energy. The partnership
includes Equinor Energy AS, Petoro AS,
TotalEnergies EP Norge AS, Neptune Energy
Norge AS, and Wintershall Dea Norge AS.
Equinor is the operator of Hammerfest.
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