SANDEFJORD, Norway, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The plant processinggas from the giant Ormen Lange field off Norway will experiencefewer shutdowns after improvements to its power supply, thechief executive of Shell Norway, the plant's operator,told Reuters on Tuesday.
Ormen Lange is a major gas supplier to Europe, accountingfor some 20 percent of Britain's demand.
The plant at Nyhamna on Norway's northwest coast hasexperienced several unexpected shutdowns in recent years due toproblems with the country's national grid and even brief outagescan cause big swings in British gas prices.
But the power supply has been improved after the oilministry gave permission to use power from a local gas-firedpower plant.
"It has been made possible for (national grid operator)Statnett to use reserve power capacity going forward," TorArnesen said on the margins of an oil and gas conference.
Asked whether will Ormen Lange be more reliable now thanbefore, Arnesen said: "It is clear (that it will)."
"About half of the shutdowns we have had to do were due tonot having enough power capacity from the national grid. Therehave been other reasons for shutdowns, due to technical reasons.
"But having the possibility to reduce half of our shutdowns... is very important for our customers in Britain to reduce theinsecurity (of the previous situation)."
Shell's Ormen Lange partners are Statoil,ExxonMobil, Denmark's Dong Energy and Norwegianstate-owned firm Petoro.