IN Brief:
- Snøhvit Future’s latest cost estimate has increased to NOK26.5bn in 2026 money.
- The project is around 60% complete, with its 2029 and 2030 operating milestones unchanged.
- Work includes onshore compression, plant electrification, substations, cables, and a 3.2km power tunnel.
Equinor has raised the cost estimate for Snøhvit Future to NOK26.5bn in 2026 money while keeping the revised timetable unchanged, with onshore compression scheduled for 2029 and electrification of Hammerfest LNG in 2030.
The previous estimate, issued in December 2025, was just over NOK20bn in 2025 money. When the development plan was submitted in 2022, the project was estimated at NOK13.2bn, equivalent to about NOK15.2bn in current money. The latest increase therefore extends a cost rise that had already emerged during construction.
Snøhvit Future is around 60% complete. Equinor attributes the higher cost to the complexity of working within an operating LNG plant, operational challenges at Hammerfest LNG, difficult weather, and demanding rock conditions in the power cable tunnel. The compressor module was installed at Melkøya in August, while cable installation, plant modifications, tunnelling, and supplier work continue.
The programme combines two engineering changes with different functions. Onshore compression is intended to maintain plateau production as reservoir pressure declines. Gas arriving from the Snøhvit field gradually loses the natural pressure that helps move it through the production and processing system, so additional compression is required to maintain throughput as the reservoirs mature.
Electrification changes how the LNG plant receives the energy needed to operate. Hammerfest LNG currently uses gas based generation for part of that demand. Snøhvit Future will replace that supply with electricity from the grid, and Equinor expects the change to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by about 850,000 tonnes, equivalent to roughly 2% of Norway’s annual emissions.
The new electrical supply requires substantial infrastructure outside the existing process plant. The project includes a new substation at Melkøya, a subsea power cable to the island, and a 3.2km power cable tunnel between Meland and Hyggevatn with a cross section of nearly 40 sq m. Statnett is separately building the Hyggevatn substation and a power line from Skaidi to Hyggevatn.
The tunnel has become one of the sources of cost and programme pressure because difficult rock conditions affect excavation, ground support, and the sequence for installing the cable system. Delays underground can also affect later electrical work because the tunnel forms part of the route needed to energise the new plant supply.
Construction inside an operating LNG facility creates a different set of constraints. New equipment has to be installed and connected without compromising existing process safety or production. Shutdown windows are limited, temporary configurations have to remain controlled, and work on cables, substations, compression equipment, and plant systems must be sequenced around equipment that is already in service.
Those interfaces become more critical as the project approaches commissioning. Mechanical completion of the compressor module does not by itself create additional production capability, and completion of the grid connection does not by itself electrify the LNG process. The new systems have to be tested with existing equipment, protection and control settings have to be proven, and operating procedures have to account for the changed plant configuration.
Equinor had already moved the start of onshore compression to 2029 in its December 2025 update. The latest cost revision does not change that date or the 2030 electrification target. Keeping both milestones now depends on controlling the remaining tunnel work, electrical installation, supplier interfaces, and integration with the operating plant through the final 40% of the programme.
A steam boiler module is due to arrive in spring 2027, adding another major installation package. Equinor also expects more than 70% of value creation during development to go to Norwegian companies, with more than a third of that in Northern Norway. Hammerfest LNG employs around 750 people in normal operation and supports about 1,450 jobs when wider economic effects are included.
The two parts of Snøhvit Future remain operationally linked even though their functions differ. Compression is intended to sustain gas throughput as reservoir conditions change, while electrification changes the source of power used by the processing plant. Both have to be integrated into the same live facility, so cost and schedule performance depend on the sequence in which civil, electrical, mechanical, and process work can be completed safely.
The NOK26.5bn estimate is now substantially above the value attached to the development plan in 2022, but Equinor has not moved the next operating milestones. Compression remains scheduled for 2029 and electrification for 2030, leaving the remaining integration and tunnel work as the principal execution challenges for the project.
