Norway’s Hammerfest LNG plant faces further delays to restart

Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant faces further delays in restarting after it shut down due to a fire at the plan in 2020, Equinor said on Monday.

The company explained that the plant will restart on May 17 this year instead of the intended March 31 deadline, due to “continuing consequences from Covid-19 and operational restrictions”.

“We work systematically to deliver on the plan we established, but challenges related to Covid-19 restrictions require that we need more time to prepare the plant for safe and stable start-up and operations,” says Grete B. Haaland, senior vice president for Equinor's onshore plants.

The company said that more than 22,000 components have been checked, 180 km of electrical cables have been replaced and around 1,000 people have been working every day to get the plant back into operation.

However, the delay is due to limiting capacity to combat COVID-19 spread. “The latest wave of infections, combined with restrictions and narrow working areas, impacts the progress. At times, half of staff have been in quarantine and isolation,” says Thor Johan Haave, plant manager at Hammerfest LNG.