OSLO, April 23 (Reuters) - Equinor and its
partners have decided to invest 7.9 billion Norwegian crowns
($947 million) to connect more offshore platforms at the Troll
field to Norway's onshore grid to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions, the company said on Friday.
The project aims to partly replace electricity generated by
gas power turbines at the Troll B platform, and fully at the
Troll C platform, helping to cut almost half a million tonnes of
CO2 emissions, or an equivalent of 1% of Norway's total
emissions, it added.
Gas power turbines on offshore platforms account for more
than 80% of total greenhouse gas emissions from the Norwegian
oil and gas industry.
Connecting platforms to the onshore grid, where electricity
is mainly generated by renewable energy sources, such as
hydropower, is seen as the main measure to reduce the industry's
emissions.
"Electrification is essential to successful reduction of the
emissions from the Norwegian continental shelf, and we have
ambitious plans for this," Kjetil Hove, head of Equinor's
offshore operations in Norway, said.
Equinor's partners in the Troll field are ConocoPhillips
, Total, Shell and Petoro.
Several offshore installations off Norway, including Troll A
gas platform, and platforms at Johan Sverdrup oilfield, the
largest in Western Europe, already get power from shore.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate predicts that by 2023
about 45% of Norway's oil and gas could be produced using
electricity from shore, including previously approved projects.
The decision to electrify Troll B and Troll C platforms
could increase that share, when they start getting power from
land in 2024 and 2026, respectively.
($1 = 8.3410 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
