Estimates for progress and costs for the Snøhvit Future project have been updated. The project has been postponed compared to the original plan and cost estimates have increased by approximately NOK four billion since 2024.
The Snøhvit Future project strengthens Norway's position as a reliable and long-term supplier of gas produced with very low greenhouse gas emissions. The project secures jobs in Hammerfest, Norwegian value creation and energy supply to Europe towards 2050.
The project has two purposes. Onshore compression will help maintain plateau production on Hammerfest LNG when the pressure in the reservoirs decrease.Electrification of Hammerfest LNG will cut annual CO2 emissions by 850,000 tonnes, equivalent to two per cent of Norway's annual emissions.
In the development phase, it is expected that about 70% of value creation will go to Norwegian companies and more than a third of this to Northern Norway.
“Snøhvit Future is about halfway completed. It is demanding to execute such a large project in an operating plant. In addition, there has been an extensive turnaround at Melkøya this year, and we underestimated the complexity of planning and executing the project under these circumstances. We also had temporary safety shutdowns that have affected progress,” says Trond Bokn, Equinor's senior vice president for project development.
Onshore compression is now expected to start in 2029, one year after the original plan.
Every autumn, the status of development projects that have submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) is reported in the national budget. Cost estimates for the Snøhvit Future project were not ready for this year's reporting, but it was communicated that investments would increase.
The cost estimate for the project is now more than NOK 20 billion (2025). When the PDO was submitted to the authorities in 2022, the original cost estimate was NOK 13.2 billion. Adjusted for inflation, this corresponds to NOK 14.7 billion.
Other factors that have affected the progress and thus the cost development of the project over the past year:
- The weather in the winter of 2024/2025 was worse than normal, limiting work in certain areas of the plant.
- Increased engineering costs due to more complex integration into existing facilities.
- The turnaround in the summer of 2025 was extended which postponed the resumption of project work on Melkøya.
- High inflation has led to a significant increase in costs for the acquisition of equipment.
