Technology that Statoil and Linde have together developed for the Snøhvit project will also be used by Shell in Australia.
In connection with the Snøhvit development in the Barents Sea, Statoil and Linde developed heat exchange technology for use in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The companies jointly own the technology. Linde won the main contract for the design of the LNG plant on Melkøya, off the coast of Hammerfest, where the technology will be utilised.
Parts of the technology, which is being marketed by Linde, will be used in Shell’s North West Shelf project in Karratha, Australia. Shell will thus become the first user of the technology, since the plant in Australia will be operational before Snøhvit.
The technology includes spool-wound heat exchangers that are part of the process of cooling down the gas to minus 163 degrees celsius, which is the temperature at which the gas converts to a liquid.
“What we have done on Snøhvit is based on Statoil’s own technology,” reports Roy Scott Heiersted, concept and technology coordinator for the project. He adds that the Snøhvit licence was the first customer to buy the process technology, choosing it over other alternative solutions.
Mr Heierstad says that Statoil and Linde’s process technology makes optimum use of the energy; in addition, the heat exchanger is very flexible with a view to building a larger plant.