– There is a lot of smoke in connection with the fire, the Vest police district reported on X, formerly Twitter, at 1.30pm.
No one is expected to be injured, and the fire crews are working to extinguish the fire. The police were notified at 13.01.
Press contact Lars Kindingstad in Equinor says they have no overview of the situation. Personnel who do not have critically important tasks for the operation have been evacuated.
– We are starting to run the plant down, says Kindingstad to NTB.
The after-burning of excess gas, known as flaring, is run at full speed in connection with the shutdown. This leads to a large flame and a lot of black smoke, but does not originate in the transformer kiosk.
Mongstad is a supply base for the petroleum industry in the North Sea. The plant is the country’s largest oil refinery.
– Only critical personnel and emergency services are on the scene, the police write in an update just before 2 p.m.
At the refinery at Mongstad, there are approximately 900 Equinor employees, including 600 permanent employees at the refinery and approximately 65 apprentices. The refinery has a throughput capacity of 12 million tonnes of crude oil per year, the company writes in its statement websites.
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