Norway parliament rejects challenge to LNG plant's power supply
Norway's parliament on Thursday rejected a proposal to block Equinor's plan to supply electricity to its Hammerfest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant from the region's power grid, allowing the ongoing development to continue.
Opposition parties had sought to revoke the LNG plant's planned link to the power grid, but the motion failed when the Socialist Party withdrew its support for the plan, calling it "in practice unlawful".
A total of 48 members of parliament, known as the Storting, backed the opposition's proposal while 54 voted against.
"For Equinor and our partners, it is crucial to be able to trust the authorities' decisions," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in an emailed statement following the vote.
"It is therefore good that the Storting has not made new decisions that are intended to intervene in an ongoing industrial project," he said.
Any such intervention would "be destructive of the trust and predictability that is necessary for long-term investments" not just for Equinor but all of Norwegian industry, Opedal added.
The government approved the connection in 2023 to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the plant on Melkoeya island off Hammerfest and extend its lifetime.
Critics say hooking up the currently gas-driven plant to the regional grid could deprive other companies of electricity, push up local prices and harm the interests of Sami Indigenous reindeer herders.
The far-left Red Party had tabled a motion to kill the plan, seeking to instruct the minority Labour government to "facilitate the release of the power allocated to the electrification project on Melkoeya" by grid operator Statnett.
Several political parties, including the right-wing Progress and the agrarian Centre Party supported the Red Party's proposal.
The LNG plant is owned by Equinor, Petoro, TotalEnergies, Vaar Energi and Harbour Energy and accounts for 5% of Norway's gas exports.
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