Norway’s Equinor and its partners in the 4.3 mtpa Hammerfest LNG export plant have awarded a contract related to the upgrade of the facility located on Melkoya island.
Under the contract worth some 1.5 billion Norwegian krone ($143 million), Norwegian firm Leonhard Nilsen & Sonner (LNS) will build a tunnel and landfall for the power cable that will run from Hyggevatn to Melkoya.
This infrastructure will allow power from Statnett’s transformer substation at Hyggevatn to be transmitted to Hammerfest LNG on Melkoya.
Equinor said that Norway’s Multiconsult has already been awarded the engineering contract for the work to be performed by LNS, and will also assist in the implementation of this work.
Moreover, Nexans will supply the power cable from Rognan and Halden, while Aibel has been awarded the biggest contract covering all modification work on Melkoya.
They have chosen the company Consto in Northern Norway as their supplier for construction and installation work on Melkoya, Equinor said.
Snohvit Future
In August last year, Equinor and its partners Petoro, TotalEnergies, Neptune Energy, and Wintershall Dea have received an approval for the Snohvit Future project to upgrade the LNG export facility.
The Norwegian firm and its partners said in December 2022 they would invest 13.2 billion Norwegian krone ($1.3 billion) to upgrade the facility.
Moreover, the project will extend the productive life of Hammerfest LNG past 2030, and includes onshore compression and electrification of Hammerfest LNG.
Hammerfest LNG liquefies natural gas coming from the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea.
Gas reaches Hammerfest LNG via a 160-kilometer gas pipeline which became operational in the autumn of 2007.
Equinor is the operator of both the Snohvit field and Hammerfest LNG with a 36.8 percent stake.
Other license owners of Snohvit are Petoro (30 percent), TotalEnergies EP Norge (18.4 percent), Neptune Energy Norge (12 percent), and Wintershall Dea Norge (2.81 percent).