Statoil has awarded Linde AG of Germany a 65 million kroner preliminary engineering contract for a gas liquefaction plant. The Norwegian company will build the Snøhvit gas liquefaction plant at Melkøya in northern Norway.
The plant will produce liquefied natural gas from the production from Snøhvit development in the Barents Sea off northern Norway as well as from nearby Askeladden and Albatross fields.
The contract's initial phase will run to next summer, but includes two options for Linde to do further work up to the completion of a possible facility in the autumn of 2006.
The LNG would be sent to customers by ship.
Statoil will submit field development plans, including one for the necessary pipeline, to the authorities next summer, providing sales contracts have been secured for the LNG. The company is in final negotiations with potential buyers, said Statoil.
Snøhvit would be the first development in Norway's sector of the Barents Sea, claimed Statoil.