Page 21: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2021)

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SURPRISE

Equinor’s Troll Phase 3 project has been described as a real

Kinder surprise. It’s Equinor’s most proftable project ever and comes with a minimum CO2 intensity for an offshore project.

Elaine Maslin takes a look. ater this year, Norway’s Equinor is due to bring on stream its “most proftable project ever”. With a breakeven of less than $10/barrel, it’s indeed a low- cost project. It’s also got a low carbon footprint; the project is set to deliver about 2.2 billion barrels

L of oil equivalent with a CO2 intensity of 0.1 kilo per barrel.

The project is Troll Phase 3, which will produce the gas cap over the Troll West oil column, in about 330 m water depth, 80 km off Bergen in the Norwegian North Sea. The NOK 7.8 billion (US$900 million) Troll Phase 3 project will extend the plateau production for gas from Troll for about seven years and the expected productive life by about 17 years. The de- velopment includes two subsea templates, eight new big bore production wells, a 36-inch pipeline back to the Troll A plat- form and a new processing module on Troll A.

Rune Mode Ramberg, subsea, umbilicals, risers and fow- lines (SURF) manager on the project told the Underwa- ter Technology Conference (UTC) late last year about the project. “Troll Phase 3 is a really good kinder surprise,” says

Ramberg, who is now SURF manager on Equinor’s North- ern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. “The amount of energy we are able to deliver is huge. It’s more than the amount of energy we have delivered from Phase 1 of

Johan Sverdrup.” But, critically, he says, it’s also doing it with a low carbon footprint, thanks to Troll A having been pow- ered from shore from day one. “Troll A has been producing oil and gas since 1996, without any burning of gas offshore,” he says, “it’s been powered from shore the full time.” In addi-

March/April 2021 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 21