The partners have already conducted a feasibility study into the project and have now decided to study the technical concepts that may make further expansion economically feasible.
Currently gas and condensate from the Snøhvit licence is transported through a 143 km offshore pipeline to the existing 4.7 MMt/a Hammerfest LNG plant.
Statoil’s Project Manager Geir Owren said “Capacity expansion will accelerate the production of gas that has already been found and open for earlier production of new gas that extensive exploration activities in the Barents Sea can hope to discover.”
A possible investment decision could be made by the end of 2013, and the plant can be expected to be online in 2018, at the earliest.
The partners in the Snøhvit licence are Statoil, Petoro,Total E&P Norge, GDF SUEZ E&P Norge, Hess Norge and RWE Dea Norge.