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It is burning at Equinor’s gas plant in Melkøya, 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:,
Images from the site Monday afternoon show thick black smoke rising from the Equinor plant.
– This is a fire in a turbine in Melkøya. We have not been notified of any injuries, communications manager Eskil Eriksen at Equinor tells E24.
All emergency services are in place, Finnmark police report.
– A fire with a risk of spread has been confirmed. All personnel in the area have been evacuated, tweet the police just after 4pm
– Very dramatic
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. We can really hope that doesn’t happen, he adds.
Equinor tells E24 that they have closed the plant and evacuated all employees who do not help the emergency services.
– Our emergency personnel are now working with the emergency services, Eriksen tells E24 at 5.15pm.
Much of Hammerfest went dark Monday afternoon and police closed parts of the airspace 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.
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