Power Back at Equinor's Mongstad Plant after Electrical Kiosk Fire

Equinor ASA has restored power supply at the Mongstad facility following a fire in an electrical kiosk on February 15, the Norwegian energy company said in a media release.

The fire was extinguished at 15:35 CET on the same day it broke out. Equinor said it had sent personnel routinely for medical follow-up.

The plant was closed and evacuated for non-critical personnel. There were 950 people at the facility when the incident occurred. Equinor then said emergency organization was mustered, and authorities were notified.

Since the incident, Equinor said it mobilized the required competence and capacity to improve the situation. It said that early Sunday morning, the power supply was restored and work to normalize the plant was underway.

The first part of the refinery at Mongstad in Nordhordland was put into operation in 1975. The refinery has a processing capacity of 12 million tonnes of crude oil per year, Equinor said. Equinor’s involvement at Mongstad now includes an oil refinery, a natural gas liquids processing plant (Vestprosess), a crude oil terminal (MTDA), a heating plant and the world’s largest technology center for CO2 capture from flue gas, it said.

Via 51.5 miles (83 kilometers) long pipelines, crude oil comes from the offshore installations Troll B and Troll C to the terminal at Mongstad. Here is also a separate pipeline for wet gas from the onshore facilities Kollsnes and Sture to Mongstad. Since 2019, crude oil from Johan Sverdrup has also been landing at Mongstad, Equinor said.

In its latest update about the incident, Equinor said that it was still too early to say anything about the cause of the incident and that it would open an investigation.

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