A threatening phone call in western Norway on Thursday led to the temporary evacuation of a major gas processing plant critical to the UK’s supply, authorities said.
Having become Europe’s main supplier of natural gas after Russian deliveries were cut in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the Scandinavian country has stepped up vigilance around its oil and gas facilities after the alleged sabotage of the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines in the nearby Baltic Sea.
On Thursday morning, Norwegian police first reported on Twitter a “confused situation” around the Nyhamna terminal, which receives, processes and exports gas from Ormen Lange, the country’s second largest offshore gas field, without specifying the nature of the incident.
Moments later, she sent another tweet to announce that the situation had been “clarified.”
“A threat was sent by phone,” Odd Jørgen Nilssen, the mayor of the municipality of Aukra, where the factory is located, told AFP.
After being evacuated, staff were able to return to the site operated by Shell on behalf of the Norwegian pipeline operator Gassco, and “production is normal”, a spokesman for Shell Norway, Jan Soppeland, told AFP.
The caller was known for similar offenses, police later announced in a statement.
“There is no indication that the threat was real and we are back to a normal situation,” she added.
The Nyhamna plant supplies about 20% of the UK’s gas needs through Langeled, a 1,200-kilometer pipeline laid at the bottom of the North Sea.
