Gas terminals and storage: Nyhamna, Etzel and Aldbrough

Nyhamna, Norway

Nyhamna in Aukra municipality in Møre and Romsdal is one of Northern Europe's largest gas terminals and the terminal for gas from Ormen Lange. The processing plant supplies gas to Great Britain and other countries in Europe.

The Ormen Lange field is the second-largest gas field to be discovered and commissioned off the Norwegian coast on the Norwegian continental shelf. The field is located 140 km north-west of Kristiansund, just outside the edge of the Storegga slide in the Norwegian Sea. The reservoir is about 2,000 metres below the seabed.

After processing at Nyhamna, the gas is exported through the world's second-longest subsea gas pipeline, Langeled, which runs about 1,200 km from Nyhamna to Easington in England. Langeled was built by Statoil, now Equinor, on behalf of Hydro, the operator during the development phase. Ormen Lange produces about 70 million cubic metres of natural gas a day.

The 482 km pipeline Polarled, which was completed in September 2015, transports gas from the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea to Nyhamna.

The Nyhamna plant is on Gossa island, where the Langeled pipeline starts. The first part of the pipeline opened in 2006, and the entire pipeline became operational in October 2007. Gassco is the operator of Nyhamna with Shell in charge of technical operation. Gassco is also the operator for Langeled, while Equinor is in charge of technical operation of the pipeline.

The Etzel gas facility—our gas store in Germany

Germany’s increased demand for gas in the 1980s lead to Norway and Germany signing new gas supply contracts, with the subsequent construction of the Etzel gas storage facility.

The Etzel Gas store comprises 19 caverns, and storage capacity for gas has increased from around 500 million to over 1.2 billion standard cubic metres. Equinor Storage Deutschland is the operator of the storage system in its part of the facility.

Equinor Storage Deutschland — gas storage in Germany

Gas storage in Aldbrough, UK

The Aldbrough facility in Yorkshire, UK consists of nine underground caverns used to store natural gas.

The storage capacity is around 330 million cubic metres of gas. The caverns were formed using seawater to leach out salt deposits around two kilometres underground, and the facility has been in operation since 2012.

Aldbrough has the capacity to deliver gas to the National Transmission System at a rate of up to 40 mcm per day, equivalent to the average daily consumption of eight million UK homes, and the ability to have up to 30 mcm of gas per day injected. Aldbrough provides around 7% of the total gas storage capacity in the UK and around 25% of gas deliverability.

The Aldbrough facility is owned by SSE and Equinor (UK) Ltd, who hold two-thirds and one third respectively.