Equinor’s involvement at Mongstad now includes an oil refinery, an NGL processing plant (Vestprosess), a crude oil terminal (MTDA), a heating plant and the world’s largest technology centre for CO2 capture from flue gas. Via 83-km long pipelines, crude oil comes from the offshore installations Troll B and Troll C to the terminal at Mongstad. Here is also a separate pipeline for wet gas from the onshore facilities Kollsnes and Sture to Mongstad. From 2019, crude oil from Johan Sverdrup also lands at Mongstad.
In terms of tonnage, the harbour at Mongstad is also Norway’s largest, and one of the largest oil and product harbours in Europe with around 1500 ships calling every year. In addition, a number of other companies have also been established in the Mongstad industrial area, of which the supply base at Mongstad South is the largest. Around 2,000 people are employed in this area, about 1,100 of them are linked to enterprises where Equinor is involved as an owner. The refinery at Mongstad has approximately 750 permanent employees and around 65 apprentices. During normal operations, around 300 supplier staff are also utilised each year, mainly within maintenance, modification, catering, cleaning and guard and security services.
Refinery (Equinor Refining AS)
The refinery is the only one in Norway, and medium-sized in a European perspective. Most of the refinery’s production consists of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel. Enough petrol is produced at Mongstad to cover around four times Norway’s annual consumption. Approximately 80% of the total production is exported. Petroleum coke, which is used to make anodes for the aluminium industry, is also produced here.
Crude oil terminal (Mongstad Terminal DA - MTDA)
The crude oil terminal is an important piece in the Norwegian puzzle to export crude oil. A large part of all Equinor-produced oil on the Norwegian shelf, including the state’s share, is stored temporarily at the Mongstad terminal prior to export to customers in North America, Europe and Asia. The oil to the Mongstad terminal mainly arrives through two pipelines from Troll B and Troll C and connected oil fields, and one pipeline from Johan Sverdrup. The storage capacity in the underground caverns is 9.44 million barrels. MTDA is owned by Equinor (65%) and the Norwegian State (35%), and Equinor is the operator.
Vestprosess DA
NGL comes in to Mongstad in a pipeline from Kollsnes via Sture. NGL is split into e.g. naphtha, propane and butane at the Vestprosess plant. Vestprosess is owned by the State (41%), Equinor (34%), North Sea Infrastructure AS (23%) and ConocoPhillips (2%).
Mongstad heat plant
The heat plant at Mongstad was originally a combined heat and power plant built in 2010, which in June 2022 was converted into a heat plant. The plant converts flue gas surplus from the refinery at Mongstad into heat (steam).
CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad
Mongstad is also home to the world’s largest technology centre for development and testing of CO2 capture technology. The facility started operation in 2013, and it is owned and operated by Gassnova (77.5%), Equinor (7.5%), Shell (7.5%) and Sasol (7.5%).
The knowledge acquired from the TCM facility is an important contributor towards the development of carbon capture technology.
TCM has a flexible amine plant and a chilled ammonia plant, with a combined CO2 capture capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum, from the refinery’s two flue gas sources – which have a composition of 3.6 to 14% CO2.
Equinor is operator of TCM.