A combined heat and power (CHP) plant is to be built by Statoil at Mongstad near Bergen following the receipt of a carbon dioxide emission permit from Norway’s Ministry of the Environment. The group has already secured a licence from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate to build this facility at the site, where it has a refinery and crude oil terminal. Its annual output will correspond to 2.3 terawatt-hours (TWh), equivalent to 2% of overall Norwegian electricity generation in a year with normal precipitation. Fuelled by surplus gas from the refinery and natural gas from Troll in the North Sea, the CHP plant will provide 350MW of heat for use in the refinery and 280MW of electricity. Plans call for the CHP plant to come on line in 2010. Statoil is due to draw up plans by 2008 for managing the major carbon emissions from Mongstad, with an investment decision for a large-scale capture plant expected to be possible by 2012.
