The liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Arctic Discoverer docked at the Cove Point gas import terminal in the state of Maryland, south of Washington DC. Its cargo comes from the firm’s LNG export facility at Melkoya outside Hammerfest in the Finnmark county of Norway.
Through the development of the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea, StatoilHydro is seeking to market gas to global markets. It is expected to market a total of four billion cubic meters of gas annually at the field’s full capacity.
StatoilHydro has a long-term throughput arrangement with the Cove Point terminal to import gas to the US East Coast. At this terminal, LNG is delivered, stored and regassified to become pipeline gas.
Rune Bjornson, StatoilHydro’s executive vice president for the natural gas business, said: This is a historic occasion. For over 20 years StatoilHydro has supplied the American market with crude oil from the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Now we are also supplying gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf. For the American market, this means improved security of supply. For our part, we will continue to develop to become an even more flexible supplier of energy for our customers.
