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Home Fossil Energy Equinor resumes operations at Sture terminal after two-ship collision

Equinor resumes operations at Sture terminal after two-ship collision

November 8, 2018

Norway’s Equinor resumed operations at the Sture terminal and the Kollsnes plant on Thursday afternoon after being shut down in connection with the collision between two ships. 

Sture terminal; Source: Equinor/Photographer: Øyvind Hagen

To remind, the frigate KNM Helge Ingstad and the tanker Sola TS collided at the Sture terminal early on Thursday morning, prompting Equinor to shutdown the terminal and evacuate personnel as a precautionary measure.

According to a Thursday morning report from Reuters, seven people were injured in the collision between the two vessels. The frigate sustained severe damage and was leaking fuel but there were no reports of damage to the oil tanker.

Gassco, as the operator, reported earlier on Thursday that the collision had also led to the closure of the Vestprosess pipeline and Kollsnes gas processing plant. The condensate pipeline Vestprosess runs from Kollsnes to the Mongstad refinery via Sture. Gassco said the incident would mean reduced gas deliveries to continental Europe.

Announcing the re-start of operations at Sture terminal and Kollsnes, Equinor also said on Thursday afternoon that the North Sea installations affected by the shut-down of the two onshore plants are gradually starting up again.

The Sture terminal receives crude oil from the Oseberg area through the 115-kilometer Oseberg transport system from Oseberg field center, and crude oil from the Grane field through the 212-kilometer Grane oil pipeline. The Svalin field was connected via the Grane pipeline in 2014. Crude oil from the Edvard Grieg field has been transported to Sture via GOP since the end of 2015.

Following the resumption of operations, Gassco said that gas transport to Europe will be normalized, but it will take some time until full capacity is restored.

 

Offshore Energy Today Staff