Norway Oil, Gas Terminals Shut After Tanker Collides With Ship

(Bloomberg) -- The operators of the Sture oil terminal and the Kollsnes gas processing plant shut down the facilities on Norway’s west coast on Thursday as a precautionary measure after a crude tanker collided with a military vessel nearby.

The damaged military frigate was towed to shore and a salvage operation is underway, but there was no indication of leaks from the tanker, the Sola TS, the Norwegian Coastal Administration said in a statement.

Key Insights

• The importance to the oil market mostly rests on how long Sture stays shut; shipping accidents rarely close ports for long periods unless a facility is damaged or directly affected; since the shutdown is a precaution, that’s unlikely to be the case here
• Sture, operated by Equinor ASA, shipped about 316,000 barrels a day in October, according to tanker tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That represents about 17 percent of loadings of the main North Sea grades.
• The biggest flow from Sture is Grane crude, but of potentially greater significance for the oil market is the fact the terminal exports Oseberg, one of five North Sea crudes that make up the global benchmark Dated Brent.
  • Oseberg flows this year have been about 90k b/d compared with total benchmark flows of about 970k b/d.
• The tanker involved in the collision was carrying 625k barrels of crude, NTB reported.
• The impact on gas deliveries from Kollsnes was estimated at 30 million cubic meters a day for 12 hours, according to Gassco AS, the operator of the plant. It revised an initial estimate of 100.7 mcm.

Know More

• The collision occurred at about 4 a.m. local time near the terminals in Oygarden municipality, close to Bergen.
• No reports of serious injuries: NTB
• Frigate leaked some fuel from a 10 cubic meter tank, although it’s unclear how much: Norwegian Coastal Administration.
• Apart from Oseberg and Grane, Sture also handles production from fields including Svalin, Edvard Grieg and Ivar Aasen. Its products include Oseberg blend, Grane blend, liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha. See more on Equinor’s website

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