Gassco is operator for the Langeled subsea pipeline which runs from the Ormen Lange land plant at Aukra, mid-Norway, via the Sleipner area, to Easington on the English east coast. (Photo: Øivind Leren)
A ceremonial handover took place as part of the official opening of the field on 6 October in Molde, mid-Norway.
Morten Ruud, executive vice president for Projects. (Photo: Øivind Leren)
"As operator for the development since 1999, it is a delight to state that it has gone according to plan," says Morten Ruud, executive vice president for Projects. "Production has good regularity and everything is working satisfactorily."
"We can now confidently hand over operatorship of Ormen Lange to Norske Shell," says Mr Ruud.
The decision to share the operatorship, with Hydro as development operator and Norske Shell in charge of the operations phase was taken by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in December 1999.
"The partnership has worked well in operational phase preparations between the developer and the operations organisation," says Ivar Helge Hollen, Norske Shell's head of operations for Ormen Lange.
"There have been challenges, but we have solved them through a common effort. It's a very impressive facility Shell is taking over on 1 December."
Gassco is operator for the Langeled subsea pipeline which runs from the Ormen Lange land plant at Aukra, mid-Norway, via the Sleipner area, to Easington on the English east coast.
Ormen Lange partners as of 1 December 2007 are A/S Norske Shell (operator) with a 17.04% interest, Petoro AS (36.48%), StatoilHydro (28.91%), Dong E&P Norge AS (10.34%) and ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Norway AS with 7.23%.