On November 8, an oil tanker and a Norwegian navy frigate collided off Norway’s west coast, injuring eight people and triggering the temporary shutdown of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway’s top gas processing plant, and several offshore fields.
What happened?
The collision of the oil tanker and the navy frigate off Norway’s west coast triggered the temporary shutdown of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway’s top gas processing plant, and several offshore fields.
The frigate took part in a major NATO military exercise conducted recently, ran aground and started tilting. The Norwegian military was called into refloat the vessel. However, eight members of the navy crew who were assisting the military were injured but 137 crew members onboard the vessel were not injured.
Norwegian Navy Counter-Admiral Nils Andreas Stensoenes told, “We are working on stabilizing the vessel. We are very glad that no lives got lost and that the injuries are not more serious than they are”.
Investigation initiated
Police and the national Accident Investigation Board were investigating the accident. The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway said, “There was no sign of a leak from the oil tanker, but it has been asked to return to the port for further inspection”.
Oil terminals shutdown
Equinor said in a statement, “The tanker had left Equinor’s Sture oil shipment terminal with a cargo of crude, and the facility was shut for several hours on Thursday as a result. The Kollsnes gas plant, with a processing capacity of 144.5 million cubic meters per day, was also shut for several hours. Both the Sture terminal and the Kollsnes plant were restarting on Thursday afternoon. Kollsnes processes gas from the Troll, Kvitebjoern, and Visund fields for Britain and the rest of Europe. The Troll A platform was also restarting operations after its earlier temporary shutdown”.
Increase in gas prices
The UK wholesale gas prices were up ahead of news of the incident and increased further afterward. Gas for immediate delivery was up 6.2 percent at 66.50 pence per therm at 11:36 GMT. Norway is a major supplier of gas to Britain so big outages can impact UK gas prices.
Flows from Norway to Britain were down by 14-15 million cubic meters due to the Kollsnes outage.
A British gas trader said, “Norwegian outages due to the collision have prompted extra buying. The market was already quite bullish due to lower temperatures. The Sture terminal receives oil via pipelines from North Sea fields, including Oseberg, Grane, Svalin, Edvard Grieg and Ivar Aasen, which in turn is exported to global markets on tankers. Oseberg, Grane and Ivar Aasen were restarting output after being shut”.
Offshore oil fields affected
Oil output from the fields delivering to the Sture terminal was around 350,000 barrels per day in August, the latest data available from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate showed. The Sture terminal has a capacity to store one million cubic meters of crude oil and 60,000 cubic meters of liquefied petroleum gas in rock chambers.
LPG mix and naphtha are also exported from the terminal via the Vestprosess pipeline to the Mongstad oil terminal. Oseberg is one of the crude streams underpinning the global Brent oil benchmark. Brent crude futures were down 21 cents at $71.86 a barrel by 1249 GMT.
Production at the Edvard Grieg field was shut on Thursday, a source with knowledge of its operations said. It was not immediately clear whether output had restarted there too.
Disclaimer: This video is intended for informational purpose only. This may not be construed as a news item or advice of any sort. Please consult the experts in that field for the authenticity of the presentations.
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Source: Reuters, The Telegraph on YouTube
