Troll Phase 3 Plan Approved
Leading Norwegian producer, Equinor, said December 7 that its Troll phase 3 plan for development and operation (PDO) has been approved by Norway’s petroleum and energy ministry.
Phase 3 capital expenditure of kroner 7.8bn ($915mn) will help extend the giant Troll field's production beyond 2050, it said. Phase 3 start up is scheduled for 1H 2021.
Partners took the final investment decision on Troll phase 3 in July 2018, an Equinor spokesperson told NGW.
"With breakeven of less than $10/b, Troll phase 3 is one of the most profitable and resilient projects ever in our company. Thanks to the PDO approval, Equinor and its partners can now deliver another 2.2bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from the field with a CO2 [carbon dioxide] intensity of 0.1 kilo/b," said Equinor’s senior vice president for project management Torger Rod in a statement December 7.
Equinor (formerly Statoil) says that Troll alone accounts for 7-8% of Europe’s total daily gas consumption and would "help reduce Europe's coal consumption and reduce CO2 emissions". Troll is Norway’s largest gas field: since it started up in 1995 it has generated an estimated kroner 1.4 trillion ($164bn) from gas and oil sales.
Troll's partners are Equinor with 30.58% and operator, Norwegian state Petoro 56%, Shell 8.1%, Total 3.69% and ConocoPhillips 1.62% (figures are rounded). The partners have contracts for marine installations and subsea facilities totalling an estimated kroner 950mn to Nexans, Deep Ocean, IKM, Allseas and Marubeni, and worth kroner 2bn for subsea facilities and a new process module on Troll A to Norway’s Aker Solutions.
Troll production in 2017 totalled 45.46mn boe, of which 80.08% (36.34bn m3) was gas, according to upstream regulator NPD; it adds that Troll 9M2018 production was 34.26mn boe, of which 83.1% (28.47bn m3) was gas.
Norway's petroleum minister Kjell-Børge Freiberg (left) shakes hands with Equinor's senior vice president for project management Torger Rød (Photo credit: Eskil Eriksen / Equinor)