Cold weather in Norway put Britain’s gas network on alert today as supplies dropped from Ormen Lange, a giant Norwegian gasfield operated by Norske Shell.
National Grid issued a gas balancing alert, its fourth warning in a week, when pressure dropped over the weekend in the Langeled pipeline that delivers gas from Norway to a terminal in eastern England.
The cut in Norwegian supply left Britain temporarily short of fuel, forcing National Grid to call on gas shippers to bring extra supplies into the system.
National Grid said that no gas consumers had been cut off in today’s alert and it did not expect any cuts. More than 100 industrial users had their gas cut temporarily last Thursday when Norwegian supplies were interrupted because of the shutdown for several hours of Troll, another Norwegian gasfield.
Ice forming in pipelines is believed to be the cause of the shutdown of Ormen Lange, a huge offshore resource capable of supplying Britain with a fifth of its gas for decades. A gas processing plant at Kaarstoe on the Norwegian mainland that separates liquid fuels, such as butane and propane, from natural gas was closed over the weekend as a result of icing.
A Norske Shell spokesman blamed cold weather for the shutdown of Ormen Lange. Temperatures on the coast of Norway in the region of Kaarstoe are normally mild, at about 0C, but in recent weeks the area has experienced minus 7C to minus 10C.
Shell was unable to predict when Ormen Lange production would resume. “We are working round the clock to put measures in place to remedy the situation,” the spokesman said.
Gassco, the state-owned Norwegian gas exporter, said that it was restoring production at the Kaarstoe plant. However, tonight Langeled was supplying only 16 million cubic metres of gas — a fraction of its normal flow of 71 million cubic metres.
Britain’s gas grid has come under unprecedented pressure in the weeks of snow and ice. Gas volumes have risen to record levels above 460 million cubic metres, exposing the nation’s recent dependence on imports of fuel, notably from Norway. The Norwegian shortfall was made up today mainly in supplies through interconnector pipelines with Belgium.
Manufacturers hit by recent interruptions in supply have called for more storage facilities, pointing to the greater gas storage capacity available in continental Europe. According to National Grid, there is enough gas in storage to last until mid-March if consumption continues at these levels. At peak demand last week, stored gas supplied 16 per cent of demand. The UK North Sea supplied 38 per cent, Norway supplied 21 per cent, 13 per cent was imported from mainland Europe and 12 per cent was imported as liquefied natural gas, mainly from Qatar.
The recent fluctuations in volumes through Langeled, a 1,100km (685-mile) pipeline and the longest subsea pipe in the world, will be embarrassing to Norway. From the beginning, Ormen Lange was developed with Britain as its target market and the Norwegian Government highlighted the issue of energy security when the project was sold to the British public.
Statoil, Norway’s leading enterprise, invested billions in developing Ormen Lange and Langeled. The construction of the gasfield, which is operated entirely on the seabed without a surface platform, posed huge technical challenges, including laying a pipe up a subterranean cliff face.
The cut in Norwegian supply left Britain temporarily short of fuel, forcing National Grid to call on gas shippers to bring extra supplies into the system.
National Grid said that no gas consumers had been cut off in today’s alert and it did not expect any cuts. More than 100 industrial users had their gas cut temporarily last Thursday when Norwegian supplies were interrupted because of the shutdown for several hours of Troll, another Norwegian gasfield.
Ice forming in pipelines is believed to be the cause of the shutdown of Ormen Lange, a huge offshore resource capable of supplying Britain with a fifth of its gas for decades. A gas processing plant at Kaarstoe on the Norwegian mainland that separates liquid fuels, such as butane and propane, from natural gas was closed over the weekend as a result of icing.
A Norske Shell spokesman blamed cold weather for the shutdown of Ormen Lange. Temperatures on the coast of Norway in the region of Kaarstoe are normally mild, at about 0C, but in recent weeks the area has experienced minus 7C to minus 10C.
Shell was unable to predict when Ormen Lange production would resume. “We are working round the clock to put measures in place to remedy the situation,” the spokesman said.
Gassco, the state-owned Norwegian gas exporter, said that it was restoring production at the Kaarstoe plant. However, tonight Langeled was supplying only 16 million cubic metres of gas — a fraction of its normal flow of 71 million cubic metres.
Britain’s gas grid has come under unprecedented pressure in the weeks of snow and ice. Gas volumes have risen to record levels above 460 million cubic metres, exposing the nation’s recent dependence on imports of fuel, notably from Norway. The Norwegian shortfall was made up today mainly in supplies through interconnector pipelines with Belgium.
Manufacturers hit by recent interruptions in supply have called for more storage facilities, pointing to the greater gas storage capacity available in continental Europe. According to National Grid, there is enough gas in storage to last until mid-March if consumption continues at these levels. At peak demand last week, stored gas supplied 16 per cent of demand. The UK North Sea supplied 38 per cent, Norway supplied 21 per cent, 13 per cent was imported from mainland Europe and 12 per cent was imported as liquefied natural gas, mainly from Qatar.
The recent fluctuations in volumes through Langeled, a 1,100km (685-mile) pipeline and the longest subsea pipe in the world, will be embarrassing to Norway. From the beginning, Ormen Lange was developed with Britain as its target market and the Norwegian Government highlighted the issue of energy security when the project was sold to the British public.
Statoil, Norway’s leading enterprise, invested billions in developing Ormen Lange and Langeled. The construction of the gasfield, which is operated entirely on the seabed without a surface platform, posed huge technical challenges, including laying a pipe up a subterranean cliff face.
Source: The Times
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