Report: Bomb threat led to evacuation of Norway gas plant

A bomb threat against a natural gas processing facility in central Norway forced the site’s evacuation and briefly halted operations, Norwegian media reported on Thursday, with police later confirming that the threat wasn’t credible. The incident came amid heighten security on key energy, internet and power infrastructures following last month’s underwater explosions that ruptured two key pipelines in the Baltic Sea that supply gas to Germany. The blasts and ruptures happened in international waters off the Baltic coastline of both Sweden and Denmark but within the countries’ exclusive economic zone. The damaged Nord Stream pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

Gas from Norway’s Ormen Lange is piped along the sea bed to the onshore Nyhamna facility which was evacuated. The gas is then exported to the United Kingdom. Police told Norwegian news agency NTB that there was “no evidence that the bomb threat against the Ormen Lange facility was real.” “The perpetrator is known to the police for similar circumstances and the case is being investigated further,” said police spokesman Per Åge Ferstad.

Nyhamna is about 375 kilometers (233 miles) northwest of Oslo. It is Norway’s second largest gas field and is operated by the Norwegian branch of Shell.

Shell later told Norwegian news agency NTB that workers had returned to the site and production had resumed.