About Kårstø
The Kårstø processing plant in Nord-Rogaland is the largest of its kind in Europe. The plant plays a key role in the transport and processing of gas, condensates and light oil from major sites on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Kårstø processing plant
Kårstø proscessing plant.
Photo: Kjetil Waage
Around 30 fields are connected to Kårstø via pipelines, and millions of cubic metres of gas and condensates and light oil flow into the plant every day. There, the heavier components are separated out, and the remaining dry gas or sales gas is piped onwards to the continent.
The first gas reached the facility on 25 July 1985, and the first dry gas was sent from Kårstø to Emden in Germany on 15 October the same year. Since 1993 the plant has also been able to receive and stabilise condensate from the Sleipner field. In 2000 the facility was ready to receive gas from Åsgard and other fields in the Norwegian Sea through the Åsgard Transport pipeline. Since 2014 the plant has also been able to receive and stabilise light oil from the Gudrun field.
The latest developments at Kårstø have brought a large increase in its capacity to receive and process around 98 million standard cubic metres of rich gas, and addition, the plant also receives condensate/light oil via a separate pipeline.
Wet gas
At the processing plant, wet gas (NGL—natural gas liquids) is separated from the rich gas and split into the products propane, normal butane, isobutane, naphtha and ethane. Propane is stored in two large rock chambers (caverns) with a total capacity of total capacity of 250,000m3, while butane, isobutane, naphtha and ethane are stored in tanks.
Production of LPG, ethane and stabilised condensate/light oil results in around 500 tanker movements per year, meaning that the Kårstø plant ranks as the world’s third largest producer of LPG.
Dry gas
Dry gas is exported from Kårstø via the Europipe II pipeline to Dornum in North Germany and through the Statpipe and Norpipe pipelines to Emden.
Owner: Gassled
Operator: Gassco
Technical service provider: Equinor
Securing gas exports while reducing emissions
The “Kårstø Reduced Emission” project has been established at Kårstø to meet the 2030 CO2 emission target for the plant.
In this project, a new membrane CO2 removal plant is being planned. CO2 will be captured at Kårstø, stored, transported and deposited in one of the CO2 storages offshore.
Further electrification of the plant by installing a new electrical compressor and a new electrical boilers is planned as a part of the project.
The projects will reduce the CO2 emission from the plant by several hundred kilo-tonnes of CO2 each year, and is planned to be in operation from around 2029.
During the lifetime of the new equipment it is estimated that it will reduce emissions by millions of tonnes of CO2.
The new installations are planned to be built in a way that will not affect current natural gas exports to Europe.
K-lab
The Kårstø measuring and technology laboratory (K-lab) is a large-scale laboratory wholly owned by Equinor for testing and certification of equipment and processes for the production and transport of hydrocarbons.