Hydro: Qatalum restart imminent

Qatalum is preparing for an imminent restart of primary aluminium production, following a power outage in early August this year. Full capacity is expected by the end of the first quarter 2011.

The primary aluminium production in the Qatalum plant has been shut down since a power outage on August 9, lasting for nearly five hours, halted primary production. The Qatalum organization has since, with the strong support of both owners, focused on preparing the cells for a safe and secure restart, investigating the causes and effects of the incident and implementing mitigating actions.

The clean-out of the 444 cells that were affected by the power outage is well underway, and the planned restart is expected to commence by mid-September.

According to external and internal experts investigating the incident, the long-lasting outage was due to unexpected technical difficulties in restarting the power plant after it was closed down by an external earth fault, which also disrupted Qatalum’s connection to the national grid in Qatar.

Despite strong efforts to restore power supply, the duration of the outage caused the cells to cool down and the liquids to solidify. The primary aluminium production was subsequently shut down.

The root causes of the incident have been identified and are being rectified.

Qatalum is a 50-50 joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Norsk Hydro ASA. When complete, it will be one of the most modern, energy-efficient and environmentally high-performing aluminium plant in the world, with an annual production capacity of 585,000 tonnes of aluminium. The plant has a total of 704 cells.

(NRK/Press release)

Thursday, 09 September 2010 07:00