Since production start of the Snøhvit LNG-plant at Melkøya the technical problems with production has been numerous. A lot of gas has had to be burned, thus boosting CO2 emissions to 1,3 million tons. When the LNG-plant was built in 2004, the government did not demand high level of emission capture. Therefore, the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority is not alone able to impose such demands on StatoilHydro.
According to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, the pollution control has asked Norwegian Minister of Environment, Erik Solheim, to review the possibilities to force StatoilHydro to initiate CO2-capture at the plant. StatoilHydro is already separating some amounts of CO2 from production, which is reinjected into the Snøhvit gas field. The pollution control authority now wants the oil company to capture CO2 also from the gas power plant at Melkøya.
The Minister of Environment says he can not at the moment give any official response to the problem. However, he emphasizes that there will not be built any new gas power plant in Norway without CO2-cleansing.
