Fire hits Equinor’s Mongstad refinery

Equinor AS has put out a fire that broke out over the weekend at its 9.3-million tonne/year refinery in Mongstad, Norway, near Bergen.

The fire, which occurred early on the morning of July 3 at an unidentified unit, was extinguished later that day by the refinery’s emergency response team, Equinor said in a release.

The operator confirmed carrying out controlled combustion of trapped gaseous volumes via pressure relief, with continuous cooling of the surrounding equipment executed simultaneously.

While work to maintain and secure “the affected system” remains ongoing, the operator said it will still have to undertake further examinations and necessary repairs ahead of restarting the impacted part of the unidentified processing plant.

The main refining plant continues to operate, but portions of “the plant involved in production of some refined products” presumably are shuttered, Equinor said.

The company said it continues to cooperate with authorities to uncover a cause of the incident.

In its latest annual report to investors, Equinor said a project to decommission and redesign a part of the refinery’s combined heat and power plant (CHP) to a new heater for process heat was scheduled to become operational during second-quarter 2022. The CHP was due to remain in operation until the new heater entered service.