Equinor and the Troll partners have decided to invest just over $1.13 billion (NOK 12 billion) to further develop the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas province, offshore Norway.
Equinor said the investment would accelerate production from the reservoir and thus maintain the current high gas export levels from the Troll and Kollsnes value chain leading up to 2030.
Stage 2 of the Troll Phase 3 project 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 at the end of 2026.
“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).
The new infrastructure will accelerate production from the reservoir equivalent to about 55 billion standard cubic metres of gas. At its peak, the annual contribution from the new development will amount to around 7 billion standard cubic metres of gas.
“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 Trollalone meets around 10 % of Europe’s demands,” said Kjetil Hove, executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway.
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. Maximum production from Troll used to be 121 million standard cubic metres of gas per day. This has now been increased to 129 million. Production from the new Troll wells will amount to about 20 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.
Troll partnership includes Equinor as operator (30.58%), Petoro 56%, AS Norske Shell 8.10%, TotalEnergies EP Norge 3.69%, and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia 1.62%.