Equinor has announced plans to invest over NOK 12 billion along with its partners to further develop the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas province, to ensure maintaining the current high gas export levels from the Troll and Kollsnes value chain leading up to 2030.
“This is a highly profitable project that will secure high gas production from the Troll field. The partnership’s decision is important in order for us to fully utilize the capacity of existing infrastructure. We’ve chosen to use solid, familiar suppliers, most of which already have framework agreements with us,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president, Projects, Drilling & Procurement (PDP).
Troll is Norway’s largest gas producer, has substantial reserves still underground. The annual export volume from Troll corresponds to an estimated 10% of Europe’s gas consumption.
For its vast resource base, Toll underwent development and production in three phases. Currently, the development of stage 2 of the Troll Phase 3 project is underway. It includes eight new wells from two new templates with subsea controls extended from existing templates. A new gas flowline will be laid as a tie-back to the Troll A platform, and the project will also perform modification work on Troll A. The first wells are scheduled to come on stream by 2026.
The new infrastructure will accelerate production from the reservoir equivalent to about 55 billion standard cubic meters (bscm) of gas. At its peak, the annual contribution from the new development will amount to around 7 bscm of gas, Equinor said in a press release on Friday.
“We have been working alongside our partners, Gassco and the Norwegian authorities to maximize energy deliveries from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) since 2022. This project will allow Troll and Kollsnes to continue their substantial contributions to the role of the NCS in guaranteeing European energy security in challenging times. The gas from Troll alone meets around 10 % of Europe’s demands,” said Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway.
Gassco is the operator of Kollsnes while, Equinor is the Technical Service Provider.
The first stage of gas production from the Troll West gas province started in 2021 and included eight wells and a new pipeline to the Troll A platform, as well as a new inlet module. This part of the project helped extend plateau production by 5-7 years. Stage 2 will further extend plateau production by around four years and reduce the production decline over the next 10-12 years.
Plateau production of Troll gas has increased as a result of recent upgrades at the Kollsnes processing plant. The maximum production from Troll used to be 121 million standard cubic meters (mscm) of gas per day. This has now been increased to 129 million. Production from the new Troll wells will amount to about 20 mscm of gas per day.
Notably, Troll A platform is electrified, which means that the production has very low CO2 emissions.
The gas is sent to Kollsnes, where it is treated, dehydrated, and compressed before being transported to Europe via the Zeepipe pipelines. Kolsnes is also powered by electricity.
The Toll field is a partnership between Equinor Energy AS 30.58% (operator), Petoro AS 56%, AS Norske Shell 8.10%, TotalEnergies EP Norge AS 3.69%, and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS 1.62%.
For stage 2 of Toll phase 3 development, OneSubsea has been awarded a contract valued at NOK 2 billion for front-end engineering and design (FEED) with an option for detailed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of subsea production systems, including umbilicals.
Allseas has been awarded the pipelaying contract for the 36-inch gas pipeline.
Odfjell Drilling and the Deepsea Aberdeen drilling rig have been awarded the drilling contract for the eight production wells on the Troll field in connection with TP3 II. The drilling is expected to start in late 2025 or early 2026, with an estimated contract value of around NOK 1.3 billion.
Aker Solutions has previously been awarded a FEED study for modifications to the Troll A platform, and evaluations are ongoing to select suppliers for the implementation of detailed engineering, procurement, and construction work on the platform. Contract awards are planned for the end of the summer.
