During 2008, the onshore part of the Snøhvit plant changed operative status from running-in to ordinary production. 

Early in 2008, flaring at Hammerfest LNG was still quite extensive, in particular flaring from several start-ups. During the first half of 2008 the plant introduced adjusted start-up procedures. During start-up of the last system in the production chain, we still experienced some emission disturbances. However, during the autumn of 2008, start-up flaring was significantly reduced and CO2 emissions are at best less than 0.5 % of CO2 emissions from the initial start-up in 2007.

We expect the operational regularity to increase in all respects, thus reducing flaring to a design minimum. Soot formation has not been considered a problem since the first start-up period in the autumn of 2007, and soot fallout from the flare is not expected to recur, with the possible exception of during short intervals in connection with planned run-down and start-up of the plant.