Two North Sea platforms plug into shore power as works on full electrification continue to take decarbonization up a notch

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has shifted its carbon footprint reduction efforts into higher gear with the partial electrification of two offshore platforms at a giant North Sea field off the coast of Norway.

Equinor has planned the development and production of resources from the Troll field in three phases, thus, Phase 1, covering the gas resources in Troll East, led to the installation of the Troll A platform, the Kollsnes gas plant, and associated infrastructure with gas exported to Europe via the Zeepipe pipelines. The Troll A platform, which is said to be the first platform to be powered from shore on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), has been electrified since its start-up in 1996.

Afterward, Equinor turned to Phase  2, which includes resources in Troll West (TWEL), leading to the Troll B and C platforms and associated infrastructure, sending produced oil to the terminal at Mongstad. On the other hand, the first part of Phase 3 entailed producing the gas cap overlying the oil column in Troll West, while continuing to produce oil and sending the produced gas to Troll A and onward to existing infrastructure.

The Norwegian giant made up its mind to pursue the second stage of the Troll Phase 3 (TP3 II) project by investing over NOK 12 billion (close to $1.13 billion) to boost the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas area in a bid to accelerate production from the reservoir and maintain the current high gas export levels from the Troll and Kollsnes value chain leading up to 2030.

The TP3 II encompasses eight new wells from two new templates with subsea controls extended from existing templates while a new gas flowline will be laid as a tie-back to the Troll A platform. This project is expected to require modification work on Troll A and the first wells are slated to come on stream at the end of 2026.

While Equinor continues to work on this project, the firm has also made progress in its mission to slash emissions from the Troll field. To this end, Troll B and C became partly powered from shore on September 7, curbing annual emissions from the NCS by 250,000 tonnes of CO2, which is aligned with the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Troll West electrification, as was approved by Norwegian authorities in 2021.

The power from shore project brings an 85-kilometre-long cable from Kollsnes to Troll B and a 20-kilometre-long cable from Troll B to Troll C. The power to these platforms, which comes from Kollsnes northwest of Bergen, runs through a new electro building shared by the Troll and Oseberg fields out to Troll B in a 132 kV power cable, and from there to Troll C.

As the project resulted in the installation of new modules on the two platforms to adjust the voltage to the systems on board, the processing systems and other energy-intensive systems on both are now driven by electricity, except for the large export compressors, which are still gas-powered.

Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s Executive Vice President for Projects, Drilling & Procurement, commented: “Troll B and C electrification marks an important milestone in the efforts to halve the emissions from our operations by 2030. The project reduces CO2 emissions by the equivalent of those from 125,000 fossil-fuelled cars.

“Troll West electrification has generated substantial business activity for Norwegian suppliers. Over 70 percent of the investments in the project have gone to companies in Norway. I am very pleased that we, along with our partners and suppliers, have succeeded in executing the project in a safe and effective manner.”

Aker Solutions, which was picked to work on the project, has built three electro modules at its Stord yard and handled the procurement and installation of all electrical equipment in the modules and the new electro building at Kollsnes. The firm also took care of all modification work on Troll B and C and all hook-ups to existing operating systems offshore and at Kollsnes. NKT was responsible for the power cable’s production and installation with the former being carried out at the firm’s facility in Karlskrona, Sweden.

While Heerema was in charge of performing heavy lifts of modules, the main supplier for the Kollsnes sub-project was Skanska Norge, which constructed the transformer substation and landfall area. Total investments in the project are NOK 8.1 billion (nearly $749.8 million) but Aker Solutions’ contract is worth about NOK 2.9 billion ($268.45 million), generating about 1,000 person-years (FTE) of employment.

With the electrification endeavor, the energy giant claims that the CO2 reduction is equivalent to about half a percent of Norway’s total annual emissions with NOx emissions from the field also curbed by around 850 tonnes per year. As a result, the company highlights that gas burned in turbines to provide energy on the platforms can now be exported and more efficiently used in Europe.

Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s Executive Vice President for Exploration & Production Norway, underlined: “We have made several new discoveries in the Troll and Fram area in recent years. Thanks to Troll B and C electrification we can develop and produce these resources with very low emissions. The Troll area will continue to deliver large volumes of low-carbon, high-value energy for many years to come.”

Equinor emphasizes its dedication to completing the ongoing work on the TWEL project, which is being undertaken to fully electrify the Troll C platform to ensure all power needs are met with electricity from land, reducing annual emissions by another 200,000 tonnes of CO2. Once finished, the project is expected to help cut almost 4% of the total emissions from oil and gas production, around 1% of total emissions in Norway.

While the power demand for Troll B and C will be up to 116 MW after the full electrification of Troll C, the Norwegian giant underscores that the infrastructure at Kollsnes and the cable to the platform are also designed for a possible future full electrification of Troll B. The licensees in the Troll unit are Equinor (30.6%, operator), Petoro (56%), Norske Shell (8.1%), TotalEnergies (3.7%), and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (1.6%).

The partial electrification of the two Troll platforms comes months after Equinor confirmed that its Sleipner field center, along with the Gudrun platform and other associated fields, was partly operating on power from shore, downsizing carbon emissions from the NCS by 160,000 tons of CO2 per year.

ADVERTISE ON OFFSHORE ENERGY

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞? 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲! 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐢𝐥 & 𝐠𝐚𝐬, 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐡𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧, 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐚, 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲, 𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐬, 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐬.

ADVERTISING OPTIONS

Follow Offshore Energy’s Fossil Energy market on social media channels: