Countries in the European Union are looking to boost their gas supplies as home-grown production falls. A new pipeline under the Norwegian Sea and the expansion of a gas processing plant in Norway will help secure supplies of energy for millions of people.
On a small island along Norway’s rugged western coast teams of engineers are bolting huge pieces of gas processing equipment together. Some of the modules weigh over 2,000 tonnes, equivalent to a freight train.
This is Nyhamna, one of Norway’s largest gas processing plants. It is expanding to receive supplies of gas from a new pipeline running in deep water in the Norwegian Sea. The pipeline will allow gas from new fields to be pumped to countries including the UK, France, Belgium and Germany for homes and businesses to use.
European Union (EU) countries are expected to become increasingly dependent on imports of gas as production falls, particularly in the UK North Sea. The EU wants to strengthen its energy ties with Norway, its second-largest supplier of gas after Russia, while Norway is keen to further develop its gas resources.
Nyhamna, which is operated by Shell, already supplies around 20% of the UK’s natural gas. Once the expansion is finished, Nyhamna will be able to supply enough gas to the UK and continental Europe in the coming years for the equivalent of around 22 million homes. Norwegian energy company Statoil is leading work to lay the new 480-kilometre pipeline, called Polarled, which is expected to be completed in 2015.
“The pipeline and the expansion are landmark projects for the European natural gas industry,” says Mark Wildon, Shell’s general manager for projects in Norway.
Construction on the pipeline began in March 2015 when the world’s largest pipe-laying vessel arrived at the Nyhamna plant, where teams from Shell had prepared the ground. Around 400 engineers worked day and night shifts over 72 hours to connect the end of the pipeline to the gas plant in an operation requiring millimetre precision.
The pipeline will stretch from Nyhamna to the new Aasta Hansteen gas field operated by Statoil. It will be the first 36-inch diameter pipeline to be installed in waters of up to 1,260 metres deep and the first gas pipeline to cross the Arctic Circle.
Once Polarled starts transporting gas, it will be operated by Norwegian state-owned energy company Gassco.
The expansion of Nyhamna will enable the plant to process the new supply of gas that will flow through the pipeline. At its peak, more than 4,000 people are expected to work on the project.
The plant has continued to operate during the expansion work, minimising disruptions to the supply of gas to the UK. Shell is constructing the new equipment in 51 modules at sites in four countries, including Norway and the UK. They are being assembled at Nyhamna like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
“It is a vast and complex project,” says Wildon. “But it will ensure the supply of natural gas, the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, to the UK and continental Europe for decades to come.”
The Polarled pipeline will connect the Aasta Hansteen field in the Arctic Circle to the Nyhamna gas plant in Norway. Nyhamna is expanding to supply more gas to the UK and mainland Europe via the Langeled pipeline.