Kårstø expansion on time and under budget

The Kårstø expansion project (KEP2005) is ranked as one of the largest Norwegian industrial projects on land after Snøhvit in the far north. Its investment estimate in the original plan for installation and operation (PIO) was NOK 5.7 billion.

The project was launched in October 2002 following a decision by the Gassled partnership which owns the bulk of Norway's gas transport infrastructure.

Gassco is operator for the Kårstø complex and for KEP2005, while Statoil serves as technical service provider for the plant.

This development has been implemented to receive rich gas from Kristin, which is tied into the existing Åsgard Transport system by a new pipeline. The expansion increases capacity at the plant by 20 per cent, to 88 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.

A new facility to remove carbon dioxide from the sales gas has also been built as part of the KEP2005 project.

In addition, ethane production capacity at Kårstø has been boosted by more than 50 per cent to about 950,000 tonnes per year. This in turn means that the number of ship calls at the plant will increase from 575 per year to roughly 720.

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