Statoil orders LNG barge for Snøhvit field

July 9, 2002
Statoil ASA, Stavanger, has placed an order with IZAR Fene Shipyard for a new vessel to support a floating natural gas liquefaction plant in the Snøhvit gas fields complex in the Barents Sea.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, July 9 -- Statoil ASA, Stavanger, has placed an order with IZAR Fene Shipyard, a unit of the Spanish group IZAR Carenas, for a new vessel to support a floating natural gas liquefaction plant in the Snøhvit gas fields complex in the Barents Sea off Norway.

It will be Europe's first LNG export facility.(OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2002).

The barge, scheduled for completion in August 2003, will house about 24,000 tons of processing equipment for the LNG plant. About 70 cargoes/year of LNG will be shipped out from the floating plant.

The barge will be 154 m long, 54 m wide, and 9 m high. It will have a net weight of 8,500 tonnes of steel.

The unit will be located in the harsh environment of the Barents Sea close to Melkøya Island in northern Norway.

The floating LNG plant is part of a project to develop offshore natural gas fields— Albatross, Askeladden, and Snøhvit—not far from Hammerfest.

Snøehvit has reserves of 193 billion cu m of gas and 113 million bbl of condensate. Production is due to start in 2006.