Norway’s gas exports to Europe fell sharply on Monday as a shutdown of the offshore Sleipner hub halted operation at the Nyhamna onshore processing plant, pipeline operator Gassco said, lifting European prices to their highest level this year.

“There was an incident at the Sleipner Riser platform on Sunday, where we were told they are shutting down,” Alfred Hansen, head of pipeline system operations at Gassco, told Reuters.

Norway in 2022 overtook Russia as Europe’s biggest gas supplier, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine severed decades-long energy ties.

Sleipner Riser is a connection point for the Langeled North and Langeled South pipelines connecting the Nyhamna plant on Norway’s west coast with the Easington terminal in Britain.

Both terminals were shut on Monday, transparency data showed, with Norwegian gas supply nominations falling to 251 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, from 300 mcm/day nominated on Friday, according to Gassco data.

Europe’s benchmark gas price, the Dutch front-month contract TRNLTTFMc1, rose 8.1% to 37.40 euros/MWh by 0942 GMT, its highest level since mid-December.

Gassco is working with Sleipner operator Equinor EQNR.OL to find an operational solution, but it was uncertain when the problems would be resolved, Hansen said.

“This looks like it might be somewhat complicated.”

While Nyhamna plant operator Shell confirmed the issue was related to Sleipner, an Equinor spokesperson referred any questions on the issue to Gassco.

Nyhamna is able to process up to 79.8 mcm per day, with he current shutdown resulting in a real loss of 56.7 mcm on Monday, according to Hansen.

In Britain, the Easington terminal in northeast England, with a capacity of 72.50 mcm/day, was also shut, citing upstream restrictions, according to a separate message.

Both plants will also be offline on Tuesday, an update on Gassco’s website showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik and Rashmi Aich)