Norwegian gas maintenance cancellations point to coronavirus caution

London — Moves to postpone or cancel planned maintenance on a number of gas fields offshore Norway are likely linked to precautionary action against the threat of the coronavirus outbreak, industry officials and analysts believe.

And reduced maintenance activity is likely to see more Norwegian gas exports to an already oversupplied European market.

State-controlled Equinor in recent days has postponed planned work at its Visund and Gina Krog fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, with the company confirming to S&P Global Platts that it was reducing "non-critical" offshore activity.

Equinor last week announced the first reported case of coronavirus in an offshore worker in the North Sea at the Martin Linge field, which is currently under development.

It said activity at the field -- which is due on stream at the end of 2020 and is expected to add 5 million cu m/d of gas to Norway's production -- was due to be reduced.

At the same time, Equinor has taken the relatively unusual step of delaying long-planned maintenance at already operating fields.

On March 13, gas grid operator Gassco announced that two yearly planned spells of maintenance at the Equinor-operated Visund field had been postponed indefinitely.

The first 24-hour maintenance had been scheduled to start at 0600 CET March 19 and see a volume reduction of 7.5 million cu m/day, while the second 96-hour work was due to begin March 20 and have a volume impact of 15 million cu m/d. Both are no longer set to take place.

Then on Monday, Gassco said planned yearly maintenance at Equinor's Gina Krog field -- scheduled for the second half of March -- had been cancelled.

The 11-day maintenance was scheduled to take place between the gas days of March 19 and March 29 with a volume impact of 7 million cu m/d.

Yearly maintenance that was due on the March 25 gas day was also pushed back to the gas day of March 27, with the volume impact revised down from 8 million cu m to 7 million cu m.

Gassco 'experience'

Equinor did not comment specifically on whether the changes were due to coronavirus precautions, a spokesman saying only: "Production is proceeding as normal, although we are reducing the activity level of non-critical activities offshore."

A Gassco spokesperson, however, hinted that the outbreak could be behind the moves.

"In general Gassco's experience is that the field operators want/need to reduce maintenance and other operations that could influence normal operation in situations like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic," the spokesperson said.

But, the spokesperson added: "Gassco can't confirm that all cancellations were due to this." It deferred to the relevant field operator for a more detailed response.

The moves come after a senior official at UK industry association Oil & Gas UK last week said the coronavirus threat was likely to lead to maintenance deferrals.

In a briefing with journalists, OGUK health and safety director Trevor Stapleton said non-critical North Sea maintenance could be delayed until next year.

S&P Global Platts Analytics also sees a delay in planned maintenance as a likely reaction to the spread of the coronavirus.

"Non-essential maintenance works could be deferred into Summer 2021, particularly considering the strong levels of maintenance seen in Summer 2019, pushing more gas into an already oversupplied European gas market," Platts Analytics' analyst Adrian Dorsch said.

However, any near-term disruption to gas output to the downside due to coronavirus -- or COVID-19 -- is unlikely, Dorsch said.

"Technically-caused Norwegian production declines because of COVID-19 are likely to remain limited because of the high levels of automation and redundancy in the system, reducing downside risk to production," he said.

Equinor last week also said it was suspending helicopter flights to a number of offshore facilities, including the Oseberg field, but that production would not be affected.

New field start-ups -- such as Martin Linge -- could be affected, though, according to Platts Analytics' Dorsch.

"Start-ups in 2020 including Martin Linge (5 million cu m/d), Aerfugl (5 million cu m/d) and Duva (2 million cu m/d) could see delays," he said.

Norwegian restrictions

There was some added confusion at the weekend when the Norwegian government said on Saturday it would restrict access to the country's ports because of coronavirus.

It then clarified on Sunday that the transport of goods would not be affected.

"All transport of goods -- imports and exports -- which does not involve the carriage of passengers, shall be carried out as normal by road, train, ship and aircraft," the government said in a statement.

It did warn, though, that restrictions on freedom of movement for personnel on vehicles or vessels may be imposed.

"In dialogue with the players, we will continuously assess the situation and adjust as necessary," it said.

Equinor exports LNG from its Hammerfest export facility, and according to Platts trade-flow software cFlow, vessels continue to move in and out of the facility.

"Snohvit is producing as normal," an Equinor spokesman added.