Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Neither man nor nature has been kind to the town: it was set alight by the British in
1809, decimated by a gale in 1856, burned severely in 1890, then torched again by the
Nazis in 1944. Its parish church has gone up in flames five times over the centuries. All
the same, God may at last be smiling on the town in a way that is having a huge impact.
A 143km-long undersea pipeline starts beneath the Barents Sea, fed from the huge nat-
ural gas fields of Snøhvit (Snowhite: one great, friendly, evocative name for such a giant
industrial project). It runs to the small island of Melkøya out in the bay, where the gas is li-
quefied and transported by tanker to Europe and the US. With estimated reserves of 193
billion (yes, billion) cu metres, the pumps, which came on tap in 2007, are expected to
pound for at least 25 years.
