Pioneering Spirit heading to the North Sea in 2026

Allseas has secured a contract with Norwegian state-owned Equinor to perform the installation of pipeline and integrated structures at a huge oil and natural gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

Under the contract, Allseas will install the pipeline and integrated structures for the second development stage of the Troll Phase 3 project, set to accelerate the production and contribute to maintaining the high production capacity utilization of Troll A Platform and Kollsnes onshore plant towards 2030.

The award includes the fabrication and assembly of multiple pipeline heads and the inline tees, installation, and retrieval of counteracts, and flooding, cleaning and gauging of the pipeline system. Execution is planned with Pioneering Spirit in 2026.

This third phase will enable gas production from the Troll West field via subsea tiebacks to the original Troll A platform, approximately 80 kilometers northwest of Bergen, Norway.

For Stage 2, Allseas will install a 28-kilometer, 36-inch concrete-weight-coated gas line parallel to the Stage 1 pipeline, installed by the Solitaire pipelay vessel in 2020. The new pipeline will contain three inline tees, one for future tie-in flexibility.

Equinor is planning the development and production of the Troll field in three phases, stating that this is because of vast resources. Phase 1 entailed the gas resources in Troll East, which resulted in the Troll A platform, the Kollsnes gas plant, and associated infrastructure. This gas is exported to Europe via the Zeepipe pipelines.

The oil from Phase 2, which covered resources in Troll West, leading to the Troll B and C platforms and associated infrastructure, is sent to the oil terminal at Mongstad. The first part of Phase 3 involved producing the gas cap overlying the oil column in Troll West, while continuing to produce oil. The produced gas goes to Troll A and onward to existing infrastructure.

This is now being expanded further as Equinor and partners decided to invest just over NOK 12 billion (close to $1.13 billion) to boost the gas infrastructure in the Troll West gas area in a bid to accelerate production from the reservoir.

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