Equinor Suspends Operations at Visund Platform
Equinor suspended operations at its Visund oil and gas platform in the Norwegian North Sea on Wednesday. This followed a fire in an electrical switchboard room. The incident happened shortly before 11 a.m. local time. It has taken the platform's gas export capacity of 13.2 million cubic meters per day offline starting Thursday, according to a company spokesperson.
Crew members first noticed smoke before discovering flames. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, and the fire has been extinguished. Equinor has moved between 70 and 80 of the 128 workers on board to nearby installations as a precaution. Repairs are needed, but the company has not yet said when production will resume.
Norwegian gas system operator Gassco announced that Visund's capacity would be reduced to 2.5 million cubic meters per day from 12:53 CET on Wednesday. A complete halt is expected for Thursday's gas day. Gassco also reported three other unplanned outages in Norway. Åsgard is down by 7.2 million cubic meters per day until Friday morning. Oseberg lost 9.6 million on Wednesday and expects a further 5.3 million to be offline on Thursday. Troll lost 5.6 million on Wednesday.
European gas prices fell by 2% on Wednesday. Traders monitored developments regarding U.S. policy towards Iran. The Visund platform has been operational since 1999 and primarily produces gas. It contributes significantly to the European market.
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The shutdown of the Visund platform could tighten supply in the European gas market. Other outages are also affecting production. This situation may lead to upward pressure on gas prices in the region. Watch for updates on the timeline for repairs and the resumption of production at Visund and other affected platforms.
Based on reporting by: oilprice.com