Equinor partially closes Sleipner field after gas leaks
Norway's Equinor has partially closed down the Sleipner gas field, the company said on July 12, after the discovery of gas leaks.
An initial leak was detected on the morning of July 11 at a turbine at the Sleipner A platform and was quickly resolved. While Equinor was resuming production and depressurisation, however, an additional gas leak occurred on the Sleipner R riser platform later on the same day.
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"Work is ongoing to safely resume normal operation," Equinor said, noting that there were no personnel injuries as a result of the incidents.
The Sleipner field also serves as a major hub for Norway's gas transport system, and so the incidents have direct consequences for gas flow from the Nyhamma gas processing plant and the reception terminals Easington and Zeebrugge, Norwegian pipeline operator Gassco said in a separate statement.
Gassco's data showed that production at Sleipner has fallen by 16.9mn m3/day as a result of the shutdown. The outage comes at a time when Europe is already grappling with supply constraints following Russia's closure of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for planned maintenance on July 11.
The August contract at the Dutch TTF gas hub was up 6.6% at €175 ($176)/MWh as of around 14:00 GMT on July 12.