Equinor at Mongstad Industrial Park
Equinor has several involvements at Mongstad Industrial Park through the oil refinery, Technology Centre Mongstad, NGL processing plant (Vestprosess), crude oil terminal, and the supply base.
Mongstad Refinery
Mongstad refinery is the largest in Norway and plays a key role in the treatment of oil and gas from the Norwegian continental shelf. The refinery was opened for operations in 1975 and the facility was expanded in 1989, increasing the process capacity from 6.5 to 8 million tons of crude oil per year.
Products are exported to continental Europe, North America and Asia, and are used as fuel for transport, heating, electricity generation and as industrial feedstock. Annual petrol production is equivalent to four times Norwegian domestic consumption.
The refinery at Mongstad has approximately 750 highly-skilled professionals within different technical disciplines. During normal operations, around 300 external supplier staff are engaged each year, mainly within maintenance, modification, catering, cleaning and guard and security services.
Crude oil terminal
A large part of Equinor-produced crude oil is stored temporarily at the Mongstad terminal prior to export, arriving through two pipelines from Troll B and Troll C and connected oil fields.
Since the start-up of Johan Sverdrup in October 2019, oil has been transported to Mongstad through a 283km long pipeline. The terminal has a storage capacity of 9.4 million barrels.
Vestprosess
Natural gas liquids (NGLs) are transported to Mongstad through a pipeline from Kollsnes via Sture.
NGLs are valuable as separate products, and are therefore split into naphtha, propane and butane at the Vestprosess plant. Vestprosess is owned by the Norwegian Government (41%), Equinor (34%), ExxonMobil (10%), Shell (8%), Total (5%) and ConocoPhillips (2%).
Mongstad supply base
From the Mongstad supply base at Mongstad south, Equinor supplies 23 fixed installations and on average 3-6 rig operations annually. Please see map to the right for an overview of installations.
Mongstad supply base has an essential role in the supply chain as it supplies the necessary materials for offshore operations, as well as providing storage opportunities for spare parts, supply of fluids, and deck cargo. The supply base handles approximately 3,000 ship arrivals per year.
The supply base facilitates shipment of various cargo, including:
- Drilling equipment
- Material for subsea operations
- Maintenance and modification
- Chemicals
- Catering
- Fresh water
- Drilling fluids
- Marine gasoil
CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad
Mongstad is also home to the world’s largest technology center for development and testing of CO2 capture technology. The facility was established in 2013 and is operated by Equinor.
TCM has a flexible amine plant and a chilled ammonia plant, with a combined CO2 capture capacity of 100,000 tons per annum, from the refinery’s two flue gas sources – which have a composition of 3.6% to 14% CO2.
The knowledge acquired from the TCM facility is an important driver of the development of carbon capture technology.
