Statoil required a company that would work in partnership to develop one of the most complex projects ever undertaken in the North Sea.
The system carries both wet and dry gas through 530 miles of subsea pipeline. The northern part is a 180-mile long, 30-inch diameter wet gas line from Statfjord and block 34/10 to the Kårstø gas terminal on the west coast of Norway.
At Kårstø, the dry gas is separated and exported through a 28-inch diameter line to a riser platform in the Sleipner area, a distance of 140 miles. Heimdal gas also connects to the same platform by a 96-mile long, 36-inch diameter line.
From this platform, another 36-inch line carries dry gas 118 miles to a second riser platform at Ekofisk. Gas is then transported in the existing Norpipe system to Emden, Germany and then exported to continental Europe.
The system's initial capacity was 8 billion cubic meters, with an expansion capacity of 17 billion cubic meters.