Snøhvit

Snøhvit (English: Snow White) is the name of a natural gas field in the Norwegian Sea, situated 140 kilometres (87 mi) northwest of Hammerfest, Norway. The northern part of the Norwegian Sea is often described as the Barents Sea by offshore petroleum companies. Snøhvit is also the name of a development of Snøhvit and the two neighbouring natural gas fields Albatross and Askeladden.[1] Estimated recoverable reserves are 193 billion cubic metres of natural gas, 113 million barrels (18.0×10^6 m3) of condensate (light oil), and 5.1 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (NGL). The development comprises 21 wells. The Snøhvit development is operated by Equinor on behalf of six gas companies owning licenses:

Snøhvit (Snow White)
Location off Norway
LNG Gas terminal Melkøya
CountryNorway
LocationNorwegian Sea
Offshore/onshoreoffshore
Coordinates71.6°N 21°E / 71.6; 21
OperatorEquinor
PartnersPetoro
Total
GDF Suez
Equinor
Hess
RWE Dea
Field history
Discovery1984
Start of development2001
Start of production2006
Production
Recoverable gas193×10^9 m3 (6.8×10^12 cu ft)

The fields were discovered in 1984. The development plan was presented by Statoil in 2001. A subsea production system is planned to feed a land-based plant on the island of Melkøya via 160 kilometres (99 mi) long submarine gas pipeline with diameter of 680 millimetres (27 in). The gas from Snøhvit will be used for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. The total costs of field development will be around NOK 34.2 billion. The LNG plant will emit 920 thousand tonnes of CO
2 each year, an increase of Norway's total CO
2 emissions by almost 2%.[2]

The annual export capacity is 5.75 billion cubic metres of LNG, 747 thousand tonnes of condensate and 247 thousand tonnes of liquified petroleum gas. Long-term export contracts have been signed with Iberdrola in Spain and El Paso in the USA.

There are also limited amounts of crude oil in this field. The recent discovery of the nearby Goliat oil field has made the oil reserves at Snøhvit more exploitable.

The development of Snøhvit sparked political controversy in Norway, as it was the first discovery in the Barents Sea to be developed. Environmental groups like Natur og Ungdom and Bellona argued that the Barents Sea is too sensitive for oil and gas production, and that the Melkøya LNG plant would drastically increase Norway's CO
2 emissions. In the summer of 2002 protesters from Natur og Ungdom were arrested by the police after blocking the construction of the LNG plant at Melkøya for 10 days.

Geology

The reservoir resides in three fault blocks located in the Hammerfest Basin and consists of Lower to Middle Jurassic sandstones.[3]

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See also

References
  1. Snøhvit gas field, Offshore Technology website
  2. The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Linjordet, A., Grung Olsen, R., The Jurassic Snohvit Gas Field, Hammerfest Basin, Offshore Northern Norway, 1992, in Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1978-1988, AAPG Memoir 54, Halbouty, M.T., editor, Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, ISBN 0891813330, pp. 349-370
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