Pipeline maintenance halts gas flow from Norway to Europe

Three of Norway’s export pipelines have stopped shipping gas to the continent, following maintenance works.

At the start of this week, deliveries to Europe, including the UK, were down by 20.6 million m³/d to 220.8 million m³/d. According to gas system operator Gassco, the average figures last week were 241.4 million m³/d.

The 41 million m³ capacity Zeepipe pipeline, which lands in Belgium, was stopped at the beginning of this week due to maintenance, and the Vesterled pipeline exporting gas to Britain was inoperative on Saturday.

The Vesterled pipeline, which runs from the Heimdal field (Heimdal Riser platform) in the North Sea to St Fergus Gas Plant near Peterhead in Scotland, is expected to remain shut until the end of September, while the FLAGS pipeline, which enters the same terminal, is scheduled to be back in operation on in a few days.

The UK-bound, 71 million m³ Langeled pipeline, the longest subsea pipeline in the world before Nord Stream, saw flows rise by 8 million m³ to 28.3 million m³.

"The increased Langeled flows are likely to be a result of re-routing of gas from Belgium and we expect lower Langeled flows from Wednesday," analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said.

Deliveries to Belgium are expected to resume this week. Combined deliveries to Germany and the Netherlands were up by 9.1 million m³ to 141.7 million m³, while exports to France rose to 50.8 million m³, an increase of 6.1 million m³.

Scheduled maintenance at some gas fields has already affect gas production from the Norwegian continental shelf. There has also a partial reduction of output at the 145 million m³ capacity Kollsnes gas processing plant.

Production is scheduled to be stopped completely from 10^th- 22^nd of September. 

Edited from various sources by Cecilia Rehn.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/03092012/norwegian_natural_gas_pipeline_exports_halted_due_to_maintenance_work/