Equinor halted output at its Visund oil and gas platform in the Norwegian North Sea on Wednesday after a fire in an electrical switchboard room, taking all 13.2 million cubic meters per day of the field’s gas export capacity off the market from Thursday. The fire broke out shortly before 11 a.m. local time, NRK reported. Equinor spokesperson Ellen Maria Skjelsbæk told the broadcaster that crews first reported smoke and then found flames in the switchboard room, which houses the panels that control and distribute power on the platform. The flames are out, no one was injured, and Equinor has reported the incident to authorities.
Equinor moved between 70 and 80 of the 128 workers on board to nearby installations. “Repairs will be needed, it is too early to say when production can restart,” the spokesperson said. A notice published by Norwegian gas system operator Gassco cut Visund’s available capacity to 2.5 million cubic meters per day from 12:53 CET on Wednesday, and to zero for Thursday’s gas day. The notice lists the duration as uncertain.
Gassco lists three other unplanned Norwegian outages. Åsgard is down 7.2 million cubic meters per day until Friday morning. Oseberg lost 9.6 million on Wednesday and expects 5.3 million to be unavailable on Thursday, and Troll lost 5.6 million on Wednesday. Norwegian export nominations for Wednesday’s gas day stood at 324.8 million cubic meters as of 17:03 CET.
Visund, in the Tampen area northeast of the Gullfaks field, has produced since 1999 and produces mostly gas. It sent 5.1 billion cubic meters of gas to market in 2025, according to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. The gas moves through the Kvitebjørn pipeline to the Kollsnes processing plant and on to Europe. Equinor operates the field with 53.2%, alongside Petoro with 30%, ConocoPhillips with 9.1% and Repsol with 7.7%.
European gas prices fell 2% on Wednesday as traders watched Washington’s next move on Iran. The IEA has warned that the global gas crunch could last well into 2027.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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