The Mongstad Facility is the largest refinery in Norway located north of Bergen with an annual processing capacity of almost 12 million tonnes of crude oil.
Originally, the refinery had an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million barrels of crude oil which rose to approximately 8 million tonnes after expansion in 1985.
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The crude oil processing capacity of the refinery rose to 10 million tonnes of crude oil per annum after an expansion in 1989. The expansion included the installation of an A-1400 reformer plant.
Operated by Norway, the refinery is owned by Mongstad Refining, a company of Equinor (79%) and Shell (21%). The first part of the refinery located in Nordhordland commenced operations in 1975.
Mongstad Location Details
The Mongstad Facility is located in the Lindås Municipality, Vestland County on the west coast of Norway.
Mongstad Refinery and Crude Oil Terminal Details
The Mongstad Facility consists of an oil refinery, a natural gas liquid (NGL) processing plant (Vestprosess), and a crude oil terminal, a heating plant, and a carbon dioxide capture technology centre.
The crude oil is received at the crude oil terminal from Troll B and Troll C offshore platforms and connected oil fields through 83km long pipelines.
Owned by Equinor (65%) and the Norwegian State (35%), the terminal is operated by Equinor and has a storage capacity of 9.44 million barrels of oil in the underground caverns.
The terminal temporarily stores a major part of oil produced by Equinor on the Norwegian Shelf before exporting oil to North America, Asia, and Europe.
A new pipeline transports wet gas from the crude oil terminal to the onshore facilities at Kollsnes and Sture. Johan Sverdrup has been transporting crude oil to Mongstad since 2019.
The refinery at Mongstad is medium-sized from European viewpoint. The refinery mostly produces petrol, petroleum coke, diesel, and aviation fuel and approximately 80% of the produced output is exported.
The produced petroleum is around four times the annual consumption of Norway.
Mongstad Vestprosess and Heating Plant Details
The Vestprosess plant receives NGL from Kollsnes via Sture through a pipeline. The NGL gets split into propane, butane, and naphtha at the plant.
The partners in the plant are the State (41%), Equinor (34%), North Sea Infrastructure AS (23%) and ConocoPhillips (2%).
Built-in 2010, the heating plant was originally a combined heat and power plant. In June 2022, it was converted into a heating plant.
The surplus flue gas from the refinery is converted into heat (steam) by the heating plant.
Carbon Dioxide Technology Centre
The carbon dioxide technology centre at Mongstad commenced operations in 2013.
The centre is owned by Gassnova (77.5%), Equinor (7.5%, operator), Shell (7.5%) and Sasol (7.5%).
The technology centre consists of a flexible amine and a chilled ammonia plant. The centre has a total annual carbon dioxide capture capacity of 100,000 tonnes.
Contractors Involved
The Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract of the Mongstad Facility was awarded to John Wood in 2018.
The FEED scope of the contract included the upgradation of naphtha hydrotreating and storage systems, design, engineering, and analysis of modifications needed for low sulphur gasoline production by the refinery.
John Wood was also engaged to conduct the upgradation of one of the fired heaters of the refinery. The work was conducted in two phases by John Wood.
Veltec Industrial Services was selected by Equinor in 2018 for an Engineering Production Construction and Installation (EPCI) contract to construct a Vapor Recovery Unit (VRU) plant for four quays at the refinery.
The contract had a value of NOK 200m ($18.99m) and the work scope included iso-disciplines, electrical, mechanical, automation, and coordination of the civil contract. The civil contract included civil and concrete works related to the VRU plant including the new substation of approximately 80m2.
Aker Solutions was awarded a feasibility study contract for the transformation of the refinery in February 2024.
The work scope includes the development of a greenfield facility producing blue hydrogen from refinery fuel gas and natural gas, carbon capture and export solutions.
The scope also includes the development of a facility producing Sustainable Aviation fuel (SAF) from municipal solid waste of above 70% carbon dioxide emissions.
A three-year maintenance service contract of the refinery was awarded to PSW Technology, a company owned by Scana, in January 2023 NOK 200m ($18.99m).
If the options are fulfilled and PSW retains the contract for a further nine years, then the substantial contract will have a value of NOK 1.8bn ($171.44m).
The scope of the contract includes personnel and prefabrication works with PSW Power & Automation and PSW Solutions, sister companies of PSW.
PSW Solutions has been delivering tank maintenance and sludge services at the refinery for the last 10 years.
Sub-contractors like Mongstad Industrier and Østerbø Maskin were also involved in the contract works. The work commenced in February 2023 and full effect from May 2023.
The technical insulation was provided by ROCKWOOL by delivering ProRox PS 960 and ProRox PSM 971 ALU for pipework maintenance.
Beerenberg was the construction contractor of the refinery’s pipework.
Multiconsult and Noteby were associated with the development of the refinery in various stages.
Multiconsult conducted the structural design of buildings, foundations, process modules, geotechnical investigations, and site supervision for the project as a subtractor to Linde AG.
Noteby was selected by Equinor for investigations of expansions and groundwater foundation problems for the refinery.
The types of services provided under the contract were related to geology, geotechnics, environmental engineering, landscaping, roads, structural, civil, water and sewage.
The construction engineering, partial procurement of bulk materials, fabrication, pre-commissioning, and commissioning of the 210 refinery modules were conducted successfully by Dragados Offshore.
Dragados completed the contract in August 1987.
