Norway’s Equinor has shipped the first cargo from its 4.3 mtpa Hammerfest LNG export plant since a fire that broke out at the facility in September 2020.
The 2006-built 142,759-cbm Arctic Voyager left the LNG plant on Melkoya island on Monday, according to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue.
Arctic Voyager was on its way to Denmark’s Skagen early on Tuesday, the data shows. It may be heading towards the Baltic Sea to terminals in Lithuania or Poland.
Equinor said last week that the Hammerfest plant had produced the first LNG to tanks.
LNG carriers Arctic Lady and Arctic Princess are next in line to load cargoes at the facility.
In full production, a ship carrying some 1 TW of energy would leave the LNG plant about every five days, Equinor said.
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.
Prior to the incident, the facility supplied LNG mainly to terminals in Europe but also in Asia.
The restart of the plant comes at a time when European countries are looking to phase out Russian gas supplies.
LNG imports to Europe reached record highs this year and a big part of these additional supplies comes from the US.