Equinor and its partners Petoro, Shell, TotalEnergies, and ConocoPhillips are investing approximately $412 million in a new subsea development to increase gas production from the North Sea’s Troll Field, which supplies 11% of Europe’s gas demand.
Project TWIN (an acronym for Troll West Increased (gas recovery) North) is expected to contribute around 11 Bcm of natural gas, with first production expected to flow as early as 2028, Equinor reported in a 19 June news release.
TWIN is the third step of the Troll phase 3 development, which produces gas from the Troll West reservoir. Troll phase 2 is expected to enter production in 2026 to help maintain output from the Troll A platform and the onshore Kollsnes gas-processing facility leading up to 2030, Equinor said.
Both the Troll A platform and the Kollsnes plant near Bergen are powered by electricity from shore, meaning the gas will be produced with low emissions.
Leveraging What Already Exists
The TWIN project comprises two wells in a template and a pipeline tied into existing subsea facilities, with the umbilical and MEG (monoethylene glycol) system (used to prevent hydrate formation) extended to the new development.
“By simplifying, increasing standardization, and reusing existing infrastructure and equipment, we are reducing costs and enabling faster production, in line with our new ways of working,” Gunnar Nakken, senior vice president for projects and subsea Norway in Equinor, said.
“The project helps sustain jobs, value creation, and secure gas exports to Europe from Troll A and Kollsnes,” Nakken added.
“Our fields are aging; new discoveries are smaller and costs are increasing. If we are to continue delivering, we need to do something radically different,” Nakken said. “Our ambition is to halve costs and execution time for our subsea projects and develop six to eight such projects per year towards 2035.”
Equinor aims to produce 1.3 million B/D from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in 2035.
The Troll Field accounts for about 40% of total gas reserves on the NCS, and its energy production is equivalent to roughly three times Norway’s annual hydropower production, according to Equinor.
In accordance with the Petroleum Act, the partnership will now send an announcement to the Ministry of Energy concerning the development. An environmental impact assessment has already been completed, Equinor said in its release.