Equinor decided to stop production on January 2 due to an issue on a compressor which reinjects CO2 to the field.
The company planned to restart the facility on January 9.
“As repairs were being done for the compressor, it was discovered that another part was also malfunctioning and a new part needed to be ordered,” the spokeswoman said.
“This will be sent from Germany and we are awaiting arrival and installation before production can be restarted again,” she said.
The plan is to start production on January 19, according to the spokeswoman.
The shutdown of Hammerfest LNG came a day after Russia’s Gazprom halted pipeline gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine.
Equinor’s LNG plant mainly supplies European countries with LNG.
According to Equinor, its production capacity of around 6.5 bcm of gas per year is enough to supply 6.5 million households with light and heat.
The LNG terminal liquefies natural gas coming from the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea.
Gas reaches Hammerfest LNG via a 160-kilometer gas pipeline which became operational in the autumn of 2007.
Equinor is the operator of both the Snohvit field and Hammerfest LNG with a 36.8 percent stake.
Other license owners of Snohvit are Petoro (30 percent), TotalEnergies EP Norge (18.4 percent), Neptune Energy Norge (12 percent), and Wintershall Dea Norge (2.81 percent).
In addition, the partners are currently working on upgrading the facility.
The Snohvit Future project will extend the productive life of Hammerfest LNG past 2030, and includes onshore compression and electrification of Hammerfest LNG.
Equinor and its partners said in December 2022 they would invest 13.2 billion Norwegian krone ($1.16 billion) to upgrade the facility.
In October 2024, Equinor reported an increase in costs for the Snohvit Future project.
