Country Norway, United Kingdom From Ekofisk oil field Operator ConocoPhillips Passes through North Sea Type of business oil, natural gas | General direction east–west To Teesside Owner Gassled Commissioned 1975 | |
Partners ConocoPhillips, Total S.A., Statoil, Eni, SDFI | ||
Norpipe is the undersea oil and natural gas pipelines system in the North Sea. It supplies oil from the Norwegian Ekofisk and associated fields in the North Sea to the United Kingdom and natural gas to Germany.
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Oil pipeline
The Norpipe oil pipeline starts at the Ekofisk 2/4-J facility. In addition to Ekofisk (Cod, Ekofisk, West Ekofisk, Tor, Albuskjell, Eldfisk, Edda, and Embla fields) the pipeline carries oil from Valhall, Hod, Gyda, Ula, Tambar, and Oselvar fields in Norwegian zone, and from several UK's oil fields, such as Fulmar and Auk. A tie-in point for UK fields is located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Ekofisk. It has a landfall at Teesside Refinery in England.
The length of pipeline is 354 kilometres (220 mi) and it has diameter of 34 inches (860 mm). The pipeline is owned by Norpipe Oil AS, a consortium which includes ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (35.05%), TotalFinaElf Exploration Norge AS (34.93%), Statoil (18.5%), Eni Norge AS (6.52%), and SDFI (5%). It is operated by ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS. The pipeline was commissioned in 1975. The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has granted consent to use the pipeline until 2028. The Norpipe oil pipeline originally had two intermediate booster pump installlations in the UK sector designated 37/4A and 36/22A, these were never used and were subsequently bypassed.
Natural gas pipeline
The 440-kilometre (270 mi) long Norpipe natural gas pipeline runs from Ekofisk to a receiving terminal at Emden in Germany. The diameter of pipeline is 36 inches (910 mm) and it has capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The natural gas pipeline was commissioned in 1977 and will be in use until 2028. The start-up investment was 26.4 billion Norwegian krone. The pipeline is owned by Gassled, a consortium owned by the petroleum companies in the North Sea, including Statoil, Petoro, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Norsea Gas, Shell, Total and DONG Energy. The pipeline is operated by Gassco. The technical service provider is ConocoPhillips.
On 30 September 1995, a German cargo ship Reint collided with the Norpipe H7-platform in the German continental shelf. Only minimal damages to the platform, and no injuries to people were caused. The H7 platform has been off-the-service since 1999, and in 2007 a bypass pipe laid around the platform.