Statoil says the halt is temporary until a leakage in the plants fire water unit is fixed.

The company says in a press-release it implemented a controlled production show down of the LNG-plant outside Hammerfest on Wednesday. The water leakage has excavated some of the soil at the site of the leak.

- We are working to clarify the cause of the water leakage and preparing the repair work, so that we can resume production quickly, says Øivind Nilsen, production director for Hammerfest LNG.

Hammerfest liquid natural gas (LNG) plant receives gas from the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea and production from the field will be halted until the safety systems are back in operation. It is too early to say anything about the duration of the production halt. Statoil’s share of production from Snøhvit is 48,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day.

The plant is the northernmost in the world and the Snøhvit field is the only operating petroleum field in the Barents Sea yet.