Snøhvit

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Snøhvit is the name of a natural gas field in the Barents Sea, situated 140 km northwest of Hammerfest, Norway. 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 m³ of natural gas, 113 million barrels of condensate (light oil), and 5.1 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (NGL). The development compromises 21 wells. The Snøhvit development is operated by StatoilHydro on behalf of seven gas companies owning licenses:

LNG Gas terminal Melkøya

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 kilometer long submarine gas pipeline with diameter of 680 mm. The gas from Snøhvit will be used for LNG production. The total costs of field development will be around NOK 34.2 billion. The LNG plant will emit 920,000 Tonnes of CO2 each year, an increase of Norway's total CO2 emissions by almost 2 %. ^[2]

Production is scheduled to commence in October 2006. The annual export capacity will be 5.75 bcm of LNG, 747,000t of condensate and 247,000t of LPG. The long-term export contracts are signed with Iberdrola in Spain and El Paso in the USA.

There is also a some 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 CO2 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.