Aasta Hansteen Field Shut after Gas Leak
Production at Equinor's Aasta Hansteen gas field remained shut on Tuesday after a gas leak the previous day."We are focusing on finding the cause of the leakage and prepare for repairing. We are still working on that," Equinor spokesman Morten Eek said.The Equinor-operated field in the Norwegian Sea has capacity of up to 23.2 million cubic metres of gas per day.Equinor's partners in the field are OMV, Wintershall and ConocoPhillips.(Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos Editing by David Goodman)
Norway Investigates Hammerfest LNG Outage
Norway's oil regulator said on Friday it was investigating the causes of an outage earlier this month at Equinor's Hammerfest LNG plant in the north of the country.The plant converts natural gas produced from the Arctic Snoehvit field into liquid natural gas (LNG) which is exported by tankers."Equinor shut down the plant on 11 March 2019 in order to repair deficiencies in a number of safety valves there.
Statfjord A Platform Shut Due to Power Outage
A power outage has shut down production at Equinor's Stafjord A platform in the North Sea and a restart time was as yet unclear, a company spokesman said on Thursday."We are still investigating the reasons of the power outage, which happened before midnight," Equinor's spokesman Morten Eek said.
Greenpeace Boards Statoil Rig
Greenpeace activists have boarded a rig that was due to sail to the Arctic to drill prospects on behalf of oil firm Statoil, the environmental group said on Thursday. "We have two people on board and 10 on the water to ensure the rig does not leave port. Our activity started at 8am (0700 GMT) this morning," Truls Gulowsen, the head of Greenpeace in Norway, told Reuters. "We are prepared to stay as long as necessary," he added. The action took place at the Skipavik yard on Norway's west coast, where the drilling unit was being prepared for the upcoming work.
Statoil Works to Restart Troll A Gas Platform
Norway's Statoil is working on start-up procedures to restore gas production from its Troll A platform in the North Sea, which was shut on Tuesday following a power outage and a related gas leak, the firm said on Wednesday. Tuesday's Troll A closure landed another blow to Britain's gas supplies that, combined with a shutdown at the country's North Sea Forties pipeline and a deadly accident at Austria's Baumgarten gas hub, caused prices to spike to four-year highs. "We are preparing and checking our systems. We are on the activity of starting up the platform.
Statoil Shutters Troll A Output After Power Outage
Norway's Statoil has shut down production at its Troll A gas platform in the North Sea following a power outage, the company said on Tuesday. "The production has been closed down due to the power outage and at the same time a gas alarm was detected," Statoil spokesman Morten Eek said. It is still not clear when production can restart. "The power outage was resolved pretty fast, but as we are still looking into what caused the gas alarm to go off, we still haven't restarted production and it is still unclear when that will happen," Eek said. Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg
Statoil, Partners to Boost Capacity at Troll Field
Aker Solutions awarded contract to boost output capacity; Troll is Norway's largest gas field. Norway's Statoil and partners are working to increase the output capacity of Troll, the country's largest gas field, a move traders say would enable the firms to produce more flexibly and cover production shortages at other fields due to outages. The Troll field accounts for 40 percent of Norway's gas resources and is a crucial energy source for many European states. Operator Statoil has awarded a front…
Statoil Denies Patent Infringement, Keeps Drilling in the Barents Sea
Norway's Statoil said on Monday it would keep drilling exploration wells in the Barents Sea using what it called "regular equipment" after a court upheld an injunction in a patent dispute over specialised drilling technology. Statoil said the Stavanger court had lifted an injunction on the use of its Cap-X technology in the Blaaman well, where drilling was suspended earlier, but had upheld a ban on the four other Arctic wells planned to be drilled this year. When presenting Cap-X last year, Statoil said it would help reduce drilling costs.
Statoil Scraps New Office Plan After Job Cuts
Norway's Statoil has ditched plans to build a futuristic-looking head office in Stavanger after cutting the size of its workforce by almost 3,000 in recent years, a spokesman for the oil and gas firm said on Friday. Statoil in early 2014 launched plans to construct an oval building with a sloping roof to accommodate some 3,500 employees, but the price of Brent crude has since fallen by half, forcing a rethink. "At that time we expected the need for office space to increase, but today the existing offices meet our needs," Statoil's spokesman Morten Eek said.
Oil Spill Halts Loadings from Statoil's Statfjord A Platform
Norway's Statoil has stopped all oil loadings from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea after an oil spill occurred on Sunday, the company said on Monday, with no impact on production from the platform. "We had a minor leak while preparing to load on Sunday," said Statoil spokesman Morten Eek, who said that some 400 litres of crude had spilled. Sunday's leak is the second one in less than three weeks to occur at the platform. On Oct. 8, a spill shut loadings from one of two buoys. The latest spill shut loadings from the other buoy tankers could load from.
Norway's Statoil Drops Upgrade of Mongstad Refinery
Norway's Statoil is dropping a planned upgrade at its Mongstad oil refinery in western Norway, it said on Wednesday, in another sign of oil companies cutting costs to cope with lower oil prices and difficult markets. Statoil had been working on a project for two years on how to expand production capacity at Mongstad in order to be able to process oil from the offshore Johan Sverdrup field from 2019. "The entire industry is experiencing a more demanding time, meaning that projects Statoil have both onshore and offshore need to be measured up against each other", Statoil spokesman Morten Eek said.
Statoil to Start First Subsea Gas Compressor in September
Norway's Statoil plans to commission in September the world's first subsea gas compression facility, a technology that could prove significant for oil companies as they seek to move offshore equipment to the seabed, away from ice and storms. Statoil called the facility, supplied by Norway's Aker Solutions, "a quantum leap" in subsea technology. "Such technology has never been tested in the world before, so we are quite excited to see the results," Statoil spokesman Morten Eek said. Along with another similar planned facility…
Statoil to Decide on Scottish Floating Wind Farm in September
Norway's oil and gas firm Statoil plans to take the final investment decision in September on building a floating wind farm off the coast of Scotland, set to be the first of its kind in the world, a spokesman for the company said on Tuesday. Statoil, which has run a single floating offshore turbine for several years in Norway, is now planning to build five floating turbines, each with 6 megawatt capacity, off Aberdeen in an area where the water depth is around 100 metres. With development areas for foundation-fixed offshore turbines limited to shallow seas with depths up to 50 metres…
US Regulator Closes Statoil Price-Fixing Probe
Norway's Statoil was told by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it was closing a probe into anticompetitive practices in oil price reporting and assessment, it said on Tuesday. The announcement comes after a similar statement from BP . "We have received the same information with regards to Statoil and (the) FTC," Statoil spokesman Morten Eek told Reuters. European Commission officials in May 2013 raided the offices of BP, Shell and Statoil as part of a probe into suspected manipulation of oil and biofuel prices. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Balazs Koranyi)
Norway's Statoil sells gas to Ukraine's Naftogaz
Norwegian energy firm Statoil has signed a deal to sell gas to Ukraine state gas firm Naftogaz, the Nordic firm said on Friday, providing another source of gas for Ukraine after Russia cut off supplies. On Thursday a source in the Ukrainian energy sector told Reuters Ukraine had received its first supplies from Norway via Slovakia and that the price was much lower than for Russian gas. "Statoil has signed an agreement with yet another new-to-Statoil gas customer in the European gas market. The agreement with Naftogaz is for deliveries of gas in Slovakia," Statoil spokesman Morten Eek said.
Statoil Halts Aasgard A Production Due to Bad Weather
Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil shut production at its Aasgard A field in the Norwegian Sea due to bad weather and expects production to resume on Sunday, spokesman Morten Eek said on Thursday. Statoil, which is temporarily moving 310 people from various platforms, will also remove some personnel from the Statfjord and Norne fields but does not expect an impact on production there, Eek added. Aasgard A production is handled by a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi)
