Equinor and its partners in the Troll field have reached a decision to invest over NOK12bn ($1.14bn) in the Troll Phase 3 project Stage 2 in the Norwegian North Sea.
Stage 2 involves further development of the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas province with an aim to sustain high gas production at the offshore Norwegian field.
The investment will facilitate increased production from the reservoir, ensuring the continuation of current high gas export levels from the Troll and Kollsnes value chain until 2030.
Stage 2 of the Troll Phase 3 project involves the installation of eight new wells from two new templates with subsea controls extended from existing templates.
Additionally, a new gas flowline will be laid to connect to the Troll A platform, and modification work will be carried out on Troll A.
The first wells are expected to start production by the end of 2026.
According to Equinor, the introduction of the new infrastructure will enhance reservoir production, equivalent to approximately 55 billion standard cubic meters of gas. At its peak, the annual output from this new development will reach around seven billion standard cubic meters of gas.
Stage 1 of the Troll Phase 3 project, valued at NOK8bn ($760m), commenced production in August 2021 in the Troll West gas province. It featured the deployment of eight wells, along with the installation of a new pipeline connecting to the Troll A platform, and the addition of a new inlet module.
The project prolonged plateau production by 5-7 years.
The subsequent Stage 2 of the project aims to further extend plateau production by approximately four years and mitigate the production decline over the subsequent 10-12 years.
Equinor projects, drilling and procurement (PDP) executive vice president Geir Tungesvik said: “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 utilise the capacity of existing infrastructure.
“We’ve chosen to use solid, familiar suppliers, most of which already have framework agreements with us.”
OneSubsea secured the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for Stage 2 of the Troll Phase 3 project, with an additional option for detailed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of subsea production systems, inclusive of umbilicals. The option has been exercised, with an estimated value of approximately NOK2bn ($190m), said Equinor.
The contract for pipelaying the 36” gas pipeline has been granted to Allseas. Odfjell Drilling, in partnership with the Deepsea Aberdeen drilling rig, has been awarded the drilling contract for the eight production wells, valued at around NOK1.3bn ($120m).
Equinor Energy is the operator of the Troll field with a stake of 30.58%. Its partners include Petoro (56%), Norske Shell (8.1%), TotalEnergies EP Norge (3.69%), and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (1.62%).
