Equinor and partners on the Troll project in Norwegian Continental Shelf will invest approximately NOK 12 billion (US$ 1.135 billion) to further develop gas infrastructure in the North Sea’s Troll West gas province.

The investment is expected to boost production from the reservoir while maintaining current “high” gas export levels, leading up to 2030, from the Troll and Kollsnes value chain, Equinor said in a May 24 release.

Stage 2 of the Troll Phase 3 project focuses on Troll West and includes eight new wells from two new templates with subsea controls extended from existing templates. A new gas flowline will tie back to the Troll A platform.

Equinor to Invest $1B in Troll West Gas Project
Equinor's Troll A platform in the North Sea offshore Norway. (Source: Equinor)

Equinor said production will accelerate to approximately 55 Bscm of gas. At peak, annual production will be approximately 7 Bscm of gas.

The annual export volume from Troll meets 10% of Europe’s gas consumption, Equinor said.

The first wells are scheduled to come online at year-end 2026.

"This is a highly profitable project that will secure high gas production from the Troll field,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s executive vice president of products, drilling and procurement. “The partnership's decision is important in order for us to fully utilize the capacity of existing infrastructure.”

The first stage of Troll West started in 2021 and included eight wells and a new pipeline to the Troll A platform, extending plateau production by 5 years to 7 years. Stage 2 will extend production by around another 4 years.

OneSubsea was awarded the FEED contract for stage 2 Troll Phase 3 with an option for detailed engineering, procurement and construction of subsea production systems, including umbilicals.

Equinor is the operator on Troll and holds 30.58% interest. Petoro holds 56%, AS Norske Shell hold 8.10%, TotalEnergies Norge with 3.69% and ConocoPhillips Scandinavia with the remaining 1.62%.

Equinor also awarded SLB with a sizeable contract for stage 2 of Troll Phase 3, SLB said on  May 24. The contract leverages an existing long-term contract for the Troll project.

To accelerate field delivery of the subsea tieback to existing infrastructure, SLB and OneSubsea will leverage North Sea-compliant configurable equipment for application in the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The expanded contract scope includes the provision of nine standard NCS2017+ vertical trees with wellheads, tubing hangers, subsea control modules, compact bridge modules and two 4-slot templates, as well as topside control integration and two umbilicals.