Snøhvit is the name of a
natural gas fieldOil and natural gas are produced by the same geological process: anaerobic decay of organic matter deep under the Earth's surface. As a consequence, oil and natural gas are often found together...
in the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
, situated 140 km northwest of
Hammerfestis a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The municipality encompasses parts of three islands: Kvaløya, Sørøya, and Seiland. Hammerfest was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
Snøhvit is also the name of a development of
Snøhvit and the two neighbouring natural gas fields
Albatross and
Askeladden. Estimated recoverable reserves are 193 billion m³ of
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
, 113 million barrels of condensate (light oil), and 5.1 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (
NGLNGL may refer to:*Natural gas liquids*Next-generation lithography*Next Generation Logistics*No Greater Love*Nordic Green Left*NGL *North German Lloyd, a German shipping company*NGL Prime SpA, a European launcher development company...
). The development compromises 21 wells.
Snøhvit is the name of a
natural gas fieldOil and natural gas are produced by the same geological process: anaerobic decay of organic matter deep under the Earth's surface. As a consequence, oil and natural gas are often found together...
in the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
, situated 140 km northwest of
Hammerfestis a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The municipality encompasses parts of three islands: Kvaløya, Sørøya, and Seiland. Hammerfest was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
Snøhvit is also the name of a development of
Snøhvit and the two neighbouring natural gas fields
Albatross and
Askeladden. Estimated recoverable reserves are 193 billion m³ of
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
, 113 million barrels of condensate (light oil), and 5.1 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (
NGLNGL may refer to:*Natural gas liquids*Next-generation lithography*Next Generation Logistics*No Greater Love*Nordic Green Left*NGL *North German Lloyd, a German shipping company*NGL Prime SpA, a European launcher development company...
). The development compromises 21 wells. The Snøhvit development is operated by
StatoilHydroStatoilHydro ASA is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. StatoilHydro is the biggest offshore oil and gas company in the world and the largest company by revenue in the Nordic Region...
on behalf of six gas companies owning licenses:
- Petoro
Petoro, a company wholly owned by the state of Norway, manages Norwegian offshore oil and natural gas properties, State's Direct Financial Interest , on behalf of the government. The company functions as a manager for the government and does not directly own the licences. The company also has a...
- Total
Total S.A. is a French oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international...
- GDF Suez
GDF Suez S.A. is a French-based energy company active in the fields of electricity generation and distribution, natural gas and renewable energy. The world's second-largest utility, the company was formed by the merger of Gaz de France and Suez on 22 July 2008...
- StatoilHydro
StatoilHydro ASA is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. StatoilHydro is the biggest offshore oil and gas company in the world and the largest company by revenue in the Nordic Region...
- Hess
The Hess Corporation is an integrated oil company based in New York City, New York, USA. The company explores, produces, transports, and refines crude oil as well as natural gas...
- RWE Dea
RWE AG , is a German electric power and natural gas public utility company based in Essen. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company contributes electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe...
The fields were discovered in 1984. The development plan was presented by Statoil in 2001. A subsea production system is planned to feed a land-based plant on the island of Melkøya via 160 kilometer long submarine gas pipeline with diameter of 680 mm. The gas from Snøhvit will be used for
LNGLiquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport....
production. The total costs of field development will be around NOK 34.2 billion. The LNG plant will emit 920,000 Tonnes of CO2 each year, an increase of Norway's total CO2 emissions by almost 2 %.
The annual export capacity is 5.75 bcm of LNG, 747,000t of condensate and 247,000t of
LPGLiquefied petroleum gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layer, inferring that it is flammable.Varieties of LPG bought and...
. The long-term export contracts are signed with
IberdrolaIberdrola, S.A., is one of the leading private electric utilities worldwide and the largest renewable energy operator in the world. Its services reach 16 million customers, over nine million in Spain...
in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and
El PasoEl Paso Corporation , provides natural gas and related energy products and is one of North America's largest independent natural gas producers. It is headquartered at 1001 Louisiana Street in Downtown Houston, Texas. United States....
in the USA.
There is also a some
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and is hydrophobic but soluble in organic solvents. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are nonpolar substances. The general definition above includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures,...
in this field. The recent discovery of the nearby Goliat
oil fieldAn oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
has made the oil reserves at Snøhvit more exploitable.
The development of Snøhvit sparked political controversy in Norway, as it was the first discovery in the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
to be developed. Environmental groups like
Natur og UngdomNatur og Ungdom which translates Nature and Youth, also known in English as Friends of the Earth Youth Norway is a Norwegian youth environment protecting organisation. It is the only environmentalist youth organisation in Norway. 6,100 members in 80 local groups work on environmental issues all...
and
BellonaThe Bellona Foundation is a multi-disciplinary international environmental NGO based in Oslo, Norway. Founded in 1986 by Frederic Hauge and Rune Haaland as a direct action protest group, it has since blossomed into a recognized technology and solution oriented environmental champion with offices on...
argued that the Barents Sea is too sensitive for oil and gas production, and that the Melkøya LNG plant would drastically increase Norway's CO2 emissions. In the summer of 2002, protesters from
Natur og UngdomNatur og Ungdom which translates Nature and Youth, also known in English as Friends of the Earth Youth Norway is a Norwegian youth environment protecting organisation. It is the only environmentalist youth organisation in Norway. 6,100 members in 80 local groups work on environmental issues all...
were arrested by the police after blocking the construction of the LNG plant at Melkøya for 10 days.
External links