Norwegian energy powerhouse StatoilHydro has asked the country’s environmental regulators to let it trade new emissions of carbon-dioxide and other pollutants from its Hammerfest gas operation, while it works to get plant restarted in earnest by 2009.

“We have described our plans for the start-up period and applied for a tradable carbon emission permit for the increased extraordinary carbon emissions,” company manager for north, Norway, Øystein Michelsen, said in a statement.

StatoilHydro stated it had hoped the start-up period — a period marked by two flare towers at its installation in Hammerfest — would not last longer than ten months. Repairs to worrying leaks in the cooling system housing forced delays, however, and the extra time will mean extra emissions from start-up flaring, as gas is burned and not exported.

The company estimates up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 and 2200 tonnes of soot from flaring plant for liquefied natural gas, or LNG. StatoilHydro will buy emission quotas for the carbon emitted, which is good for some €30 million.

Norway has yet to join Europe’s trade in carbon, though a more ad-hoc worldwide trade is underway.

Meanwhile, residents of northern Norway have issued worried calls for close monitoring of the effects of soot on area ecology. Sampling of soil and water, StatoilHydro said, showed no “measurable” changes in the air around the country’s northernmost town, Hammerfest.

“Under normal operating conditions, the carbon emissions from the flare at the LNG plant will be about 0.2 million tonnes per year,” a statement said, adding that in the meantime, the LNG plant will work at part-production.

ws@scandoil.com

Tags: Snoehvit, StatoilHydro