New cavern at Mongstad

Statoil is to build a new cavern for the storage of liquid propane at the Mongstad refinery near Bergen.

Last year the existing cavern was affected by a rock fall, which led to severe ice formation and reduced storage capacity.

It is not possible to repair the damage, and the Vestprosess partnership resolved this week to build a new cavern store. This will be ready for use in November 2003.

Construction costs are estimated at around NOK 180 million, and the contracts will be signed by the end of October.

The old cavern, which came into use two years ago, is 33 metres high, 20 metres wide and has a storage capacity of 60,000 cubic metres.

“Although the cavern has been tight for the last year, we now have a much lower storage volume than we had planned,” reports John Stangenes, vice president for Vestprosess.

The new cavern will be about the same size as the old one, and it will be built nearby in the refinery area.

The partners in Vestprosess believe that the ice problems are due to an error in construction, and have reported the matter to the insurance company.

The partners in Vestprosess are Statoil with 17 per cent, Petoro (41 per cent), Norsk Hydro (17 per cent), ExxonMobil (10 per cent), Norske Shell (8 per cent), TotalFinaElf (5 per cent) and Norske Conoco (2 per cent).