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A fire broke out at the Equinor gas plant in Melkøya on Monday outside Hammerfest, just two weeks after a gas leak at the same plant.
Heavy smoke development was observed at the Equinor plant following reports of a fire around 4 p.m. Monday.
Photograph: Bjørn Egil Jakobsen / Hammerfestingen
Published:,
All emergency services moved to the Equinor facility on Monday afternoon, at the same time that much of Hammerfest was obscured by heavy smoke.
Finnmark police confirmed at around 4pm that a “fire with risk of spread” had broken out at the Equinor plant.
Equinor tells E24 that they have closed the plant and evacuated all the employees, with the exception of a group that has assisted the emergency services.
Throughout the night, the situation has been confusing. At 9.30pm, emergency services were still not in full control of the fire, according to NTB, but police claim there have been no open flames at the facility since 7pm
– Very dramatic
– This is a fire in a turbine in Melkøya. We have not been notified of any injuries, communications manager Eskil Eriksen at Equinor told E24 on Monday afternoon.
Group union delegate Bjørn Asle Teige calls the turbine fire “very dramatic”.
– There should not be a spark even in a gas plant, it is life threatening, Teige tells E24 / VG.
– If it escalates, it can go really bad.
On Monday, the police decided to fly around Melkøya.
Gas leak two weeks ago
It has been only two weeks since a flammable gas leak occurred at the same Equinor plant. This led to everyone in the facility being evacuated.
– Do you see these events in context?
– It’s too early to speculate now, responds Eriksen at Equinor.
– The most important thing is to work with the emergency services to put out the fire, and then we return to the circumstances.
In a Facebook post two days ago, Equinor Hammerfest LNG wrote that “the plant is preparing for commissioning after maintenance.”
The company warned that this could lead to afterburning of surplus oil and gas, the so-called flaring.
Lost power
In parallel with the transfer of emergency services to the fire, a power outage was reported at Hammerfest on Monday afternoon.
At 4:30 p.m., the power returns, according to the mayor of Hammerfest, Marianne Sivertsen.
– It was dark for about five minutes. We do not know the connection between the power outage and what is happening in Melkøya, he tells E24.
Liquefied natural gas
The oil giant’s Melkøya facility is a gas receiving terminal from the Snøhvit field, which was commissioned in 2007.
Here the gas is cooled to liquefied natural gas (LNG) with a temperature of minus 163 degrees. LNG is transported by LNG vessels for sale on the world market.
The facility employs about 500 people, with trainees and subcontractors. Almost five million tons of LNG are produced annually at the plant.
Hammerfest LNG is subject to major accident regulations and must therefore inform the public about special conditions and measures that have been put in place to prevent major accidents.
