The Nyhamna Gas Plant is a large and significant

natural-gas processing Natural-gas processing is a range of industrial processes designed to purify raw natural gas by removing impurities, contaminants and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons to produce what is known as ''pipeline quality'' dry natural gas. Natural gas ...

plant in

Aukra Aukra is municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the region of Romsdalen. The administrative centre is the village of Falkhytta, which is part of the Aukrasanden urban area. The municipality is made up of the island of ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

, Norway. As of January 2018, Norway was the world's third-largest natural gas exporter, after Russia and Qatar.

History

Construction of the plant began around 2005, and was expected to cost about , including the extremely long undersea pipeline. The gas plant was built for the Ormen Lange gas field, named after a ship of a Viking king. The head of the Ormen Lange project was Tom Rotjer. The site was built by

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world an ...

, with partnership with

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

and

Petoro Petoro is a company that is wholly owned by the Government of Norway. Established in 2001, it manages the Government's portfolio—collectively called State's Direct Financial Interest (SDFI)—of exploration and production licenses for p ...

which is owned by the Norwegian government. When being built, the plant was Norway's largest construction project. In 2005, Norway supplied 15% of the UK's natural gas. Once the gas plant was up and running, 20% of the UK's gas was coming from the Langeled pipeline. It supplies heat to around 10 million British people. Shell took over as operator on 1 December 2007.

Statnett Statnett is a Norwegian state owned enterprise responsible for owning, operating and constructing the stem power grid in Norway. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Statnett also owns 30% of the Nord Pool Spot along with other Nor ...

built a 180 MW gas power plant in 2008, but it only operated 400 hours in 10 years, and was put up for sale.

Operation

It is situated near

Gossa (island) Gossa ( dative: Gossen) is an island in Aukra Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island encompasses most of the municipality and has a ferry connection from the village of Aukrasanden across the Julsundet strait to the vill ...

Nyhamna Nyhamna is a small peninsula on the northeast side of the island of Gossa in Aukra Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located along the Julsundet strait, about northeast of the village of Varhaugvika and northeast of the ...

. Nyhamna has about 3,000 residents.

Langeled pipeline

The Langeled pipeline was built for

, to begin operation in 2007, via the

Sleipner gas field Oil from the Sleipner field. The Sleipner gas field is a natural gas field in the block 15/9 of the North Sea, about west of Stavanger, Norway. Two parts of the field are in production, Sleipner West (proven in 1974), and Sleipner East (1981) ...

; as it passes through the Sleipner field, it is possible for this gas to be diverted to other countries. The pipeline travels an incredible 745 miles (1,200 km) to the

Easington Gas Terminal The Easington Gas Terminal is one of six main gas terminals in the UK, and is situated on the North Sea coast at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire and Dimlington. The other main gas terminals are at St Fergus Gas Terminal, St Fergus, Aberdeens ...

in Yorkshire, England. The pipeline was built around the clock, 24 hours a day, with the pipeline sections being welded on

Acergy Acergy S.A. was an international offshore seabed to surface engineering and construction company previously known as Stolt Offshore and Stolt Comex Seaway and was part of the Stolt-Nielsen Group until 2005. The company was registered in Luxembou ...

's construction ship LB200; it could lay about 4 km a day. It required 1.2 million tonnes of steel. Langeled was the responsibility of

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

. The pipeline sections for the southern section were assembled at the Bredero Shaw site in

Farsund is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Farsund. Farsund is a coastal municipality in the far southwestern part of Norway, b ...

Southern Norway Southern Norway ( no, Sørlandet; lit. "The Southland") is the geographical region (''landsdel'') along the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The region is an informal description since it does not have any governmental function. It roughl ...

(''Sørlandet''). The northern section was assembled at

Måløy Måløy () is a town in the municipality of Kinn in Vestland county, Norway. Måløy is located on the southeastern side of the island of Vågsøy, about northeast of the village of Holvika and about south of the village of Raudeberg. The M� ...

in Western Norway, and the middle sections were assembled at

Sotra Sotra or Store Sotra is the name of a large island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway, located just west of the city of Bergen. It is part of a pair of islands called 'Sotra' and 'Litlesotra' ('small Sotra') that are part of a ...

in Western Norway. From Nyhamna to Sleipner, the pipeline is 42 inches diameter, and from Sleipner to Easington it is 44 inches diameter. The section from Sleipner to Easington became operational on Sunday 1 October 2006. The project for the pipeline had begun in October 2004.

Gas fields

Ormen Lange

Ormen Lange is around 65 miles west of the gas plant. The field was discovered by Norsk Hydro in 1997. The wells were drilled by the ship ''West Navigator''. The operation of Ormen Lange was owned 18% by Norsk Hydro, 17% by

Norske Shell Shell plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and second ...

, 36% by

, 10% by Statoil, 10% by Dansk Olie og Naturgas, and 7% by ExxonMobil (Esso). Ormen Lange is Norway's second largest gas field.

References

External links

Norske Shell

Nyhamna Expansion Project
{{Royal Dutch Shell 2007 establishments in Norway Buildings and structures in Møre og Romsdal Chemical plants in Norway Energy infrastructure completed in 2007 Natural gas infrastructure in Norway Natural gas plants Norsk Hydro Shell plc buildings and structures