The Kollsnes gas processing plant, which became operational in October 1996, processes natural gas from the Troll, Kvitebjørn and Visund fields owned by StatoilHydro in the North Sea.
The plant can process up to 143 million standard cubic metres (scm) of gas and 69,000 barrels of natural gas liquids (NGL) per day. The Kollsnes and Kårstø plants together process nearly 70% of gas exported from Norway to European countries.
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On 19 May 2009 Gassco announced an emergency shutdown of the Kollsnes process plant in øygarden, Hordaland after a condensate leak. Production at the plant resumed on 22 May.
On 25 May the plant was closed again for planned maintenance, reopening on 5 June.
The Kollsnes plant separates NGL from rich gas and compresses the dry gas to transport it to various destinations in Europe through four trunklines – Statpipe, Zeepipe, Europipe I and Franpipe. These truncklines export the compressed gas to France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Spain.
The NGL extracted at Kollsnes is transported through the Vestprosess pipeline to Mongstad refinery, where the product is further extracted into propane, butanes and naphtha.
Additional plant
Originally built as part of the Troll Gas development, the Kollsnes facility was expanded with an additional plant in October 2006 to process gas from the Kvitebjørn and Visund fields. Built at a cost of NKr3bn, the new plant has a capacity of 26 million scm a day. It is expected to meet future field development needs.
Kollsnes projects (KOP)
KOP is a set of works that began in February 2009, and is expected to maintain and improve the capacity of the plant. The projects include the construction of a tie-in for a new pipeline from the Troll field, the replacement of three offshore mono-ethylene glycol regeneration trains and the upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant.
As part of KOP Statoil awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth NKr1.5bn to Aker Solutions. Under the contract Aker will take up mechanical work, piping tie-ins, pre-assembly units, pipe-racks and installation work at the Kollsnes plant.
Work on the project is expected to be completed by 2012.
Past upgrades
In July 2004 Fluor Daniel was awarded a NKr400m contract to construct a new export compressor – the sixth one in the plant. Fluor Daniel’s work included engineering, site preparation, pipework and construction. Reinertsen was the major subcontractor.
The construction of the new compressor was taken up to increase the capacity of the plant from 120 million to 143 million scm a day, in sync with the increased capacity of Zeepipe II A and II B pipelines.
In November 2006 Statoil awarded a NKr790m contract to Vetco Aibel to build a new gas compressor and a new condensate train.
At present the plant has six export compressors and two flash gas compressors.
Ownership
The Kollsnes processing plant was originally owned by the licencees of the Troll field, which include Petoro, Statoil, Norsk Hydro, Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips.
Petoro had a 56% stake in the partnership, while then-operator Statoil held 20%.
In February 2004 the plant was transferred to the Gassled joint venture with Petoro, Statoil, Hydro, Total, Esso, Shell, Mobil, Norsea Gas, ConocoPhillips and Eni as partners. Petoro and Statoil hold 38% and 20% stakes in the joint venture respectively.
Troll oil field
Located about 65km from Kollsnes, the Troll oil field is one of the largest oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. It holds 60% of total gas reserves 1,400m below sea level. The field lies in blocks 31/2, 31/3, 31/5 and 31/6.
Kvitebjørn
Production at the Kvitebjørn gas and condensate field in block 34/11 in the North Sea began in September 2004. The field is 190m below water. Operators of the field expect to extract 55 billion m³ of gas and 22 million m³ of condensate from the field.
Visund
The Visund oil and gas field lies in blocks 34/8 and 34/7, north-east of the Gullfaks field. Oil from the field is stored and exported from Gullfaks. Production and export from the field began in October 2005.
