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    Troll B Adds Gas Module

Summary

Norway's largest gas producing field is to extend its oil and gas production life, thanks to a new module.

by: Mark Smedley

Posted in:

Natural Gas & LNG News, Europe, Corporate, Exploration & Production, Norway

Troll B Adds Gas Module

Equinor said October 30 that a new gas module has been put on stream on its Troll B platform, boosting the oil production and processing capacity on the Troll field - Norway's largest gas field.

The new module, built by Aker Solutions, is “essential to maximising the value of the remaining oil from Troll, and to maintaining high gas export from the field,” said Equinor. It will help maximise production of remaining oil from the reservoir. Production had been restricted by the gas treatment capacity on Troll B, but the new module will boost capacity by 25%, enabling 4.7mn extra barrels of oil to be produced.

Equinor said that, in a few years, Troll will only produce from the large remaining gas reserves but the production horizon for gas from Troll lasts beyond 2050.

Increased capacity will allow more wells to remain on stream also when the oil wells are producing simultaneously with an increasing share of gas in the tail production phase, it added. Increased gas export from Troll B is essential to maintaining the annual gas export capacity from the Troll field until the Troll phase 3 project comes on stream in 2021; the gas will then be tied in to the Troll A platform.

Troll field owners are Equinor as operator 30.58385%, state Petoro 56%, Shell 8.10145%, Total 3.69096% and ConocoPhillips 1.62374%. It has produced since September 1995.

Production in 2017 was 45.46mn m3 of oil equivalent (oe), including 36.74bn m3 of sales gas and 8.7mn m3 oe of liquids (mostly oil), according to upstream regulator NPD. Production in the first eight months of this year was 30.5mn m3 oe, including 25.26bn m3 of sales gas and 5.23mn m3 oe of liquids.

Lifting the new gas module onto Troll B platform (Credit: Equinor)