Melkoya restarts after two-month break

Production from Norway’s Snohvit gas field resumed July 10 after extensive service work at the Melkoya liquefied natural gas plant comprising 150,000 labor hours, according to operator StatoilHydro. Melkoya began producing LNG at about 60 percent of its design capacity after a record-quick startup lasting less than nine hours and involving little flaring, the company said. Production at the plant had been shut down since May 8.

Problems with the plant’s refrigeration unit were the main area of focus during the shutdown. After the initial startup last fall, several of the seawater heat exchangers in the cooling circuits were shown to be insufficiently robust to withstand the force of full production. “The difficulties are associated with parts of the refrigeration unit and they have nothing to do with the climatic conditions in Hammerfest,” said Oystein Michelsen, a senior vice president with StatoilHydro.

The damaged heat exchangers were repaired during the shutdown and some modifications were made to pipes. Several additional metering instruments were also installed. These will be used to gain a more detailed picture of what happens inside the refrigeration unit during production. The data will be used when StatoilHydro decides this fall what is required in order to get the plant into full production.

—Sarah Hurst