The facility was Statoil’s first LNG project and the world’s first built in the Arctic. The plant’s first year after coming on stream in 2007 was fraught with equipment failures, causing a number of shutdowns. Now, most of the faulty equipment has been replaced, and Statoil can look back at a year of production close to full capacity.
At peak production an LNG tanker will depart from Melkøya every five or six days, with each vessel transporting almost 150,000 cubic meters of LNG to customers worldwide.
The plant will be stopped again this summer to replace the last of the seawater exchangers, which have had problems with leaks. Four other seawater exchangers were replaced last year.
Statoil is not yet ready to give details on how close to capacity the plant is operating, or how much the repairs have cost, Upstream writes.
In January Statoil informed about plans for a “second train” of LNG production at its Snøhvit facility.
