Norpipe is a subsea oil and natural gas pipelines system in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. It supplies oil from the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

Ekofisk Ekofisk is an oil field in block 2/4 of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea about southwest of Stavanger. Discovered in 1969 by Phillips Petroleum Company, it remains one of the most important oil fields in the North Sea. This was the first ...

and associated fields in the

to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and natural gas to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Oil pipeline

The Norpipe oil pipeline starts at the Ekofisk 2/4-J facility. In addition to Ekofisk (Cod, Ekofisk, West Ekofisk, Tor, Albuskjell, Eldfisk, Edda, and Embla fields) the pipeline carries oil from Valhall, Hod, Gyda, Ula, Tambar, and Oselvar fields in Norwegian zone, and from several UK's oil fields, such as

Fulmar The fulmars are tubenosed seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two extinct fossil species from the Miocene. Fulmars superficially resemble gulls, but are readily distinguished by their flight on ...

and Judy, see table. A tie-in point for UK fields is located about from Ekofisk. It has a landfall at

Teesside Refinery The Teesside Refinery was an oil refinery and chemical plant situated just south of Seaton Carew on the River Tees in County Durham. In 2000, it was bought by Petroplus from ICI and Phillips Petroleum Company. Refining was suspended in 200 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The length of pipeline is and it has diameter of . The pipeline is owned by Norpipe Oil AS, a consortium which includes ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (35.05%), TotalFinaElf Exploration Norge AS (34.93%),

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

(18.5%), Eni Norge AS (6.52%), and SDFI (5%). It is operated by ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS. The pipeline was commissioned in 1975. The

Petroleum Safety Authority Norway The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway ( no, Petroleumstilsynet, PSA) is a Norwegian governmental supervisory authority under the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. The PSA has regulatory responsibility for safety, emergency prepar ...

has granted consent to use the pipeline until 2028. The Norpipe oil pipeline originally had two intermediate booster pump installations in the UK sector designated 37/4A and 36/22A, these were seldom used and were subsequently bypassed. The booster platforms were removed in 2009/10 as part of the greater Ekofisk decommissioning.

Booster pumping stations

The specification of the booster station was as follows.

UK fields and Norpipe

The following fields and installations export oil into the Norpipe pipeline.

Throughput

The annual oil production from 1998 (in 1000 tonnes) was:Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) Annex F.1 Crude oilThe total oil throughput of the terminal up to the end of 2021 was 104.585 million tonnes.

Natural gas pipeline

The long Norpipe natural gas pipeline runs from Ekofisk to a receiving terminal at

Emden Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528. History The exact founding date of E ...

. The diameter of pipeline is and it has capacity of of natural gas per year. The natural gas pipeline was commissioned in 1977 and will be in use until 2028. The start-up investment was 26.4 billion Norwegian krone. The pipeline is owned by

Gassled Gassled is a partnership to own the offshore natural gas transportation infrastructure at the Norwegian continental shelf. Its pipelines are operated by Gassco. Gassled was created in 2002 and it became operational on 1 January 2003. Its origi ...

and operated by

Gassco Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates of natural gas pipes transporting annually of 100 billion cubic meter (bcm) of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf to Continental Europe and Great Britain. 15% of the total ...

. The technical service provider is ConocoPhillips. On 30 September 1995, a German cargo ship ''Reint'' collided with the Norpipe H7-platform in the German

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

. Only minimal damages to the platform, and no injuries to people were caused. The H7 platform has been off-the-service since 1999, and in 2007 a bypass pipe laid around the platform.

References

External links

Norpipe (Gassco website)
{{Coord missing, Germany Energy infrastructure completed in 1975 North Sea energy Natural gas pipelines in Germany Natural gas pipelines in Norway Oil pipelines in Norway Oil pipelines in the United Kingdom Equinor ExxonMobil buildings and structures Shell plc ConocoPhillips Eni TotalEnergies Pipelines under the North Sea Norway–United Kingdom relations Energy infrastructure completed in 1977 1975 establishments in Norway 1977 establishments in Norway 1975 establishments in England 1977 establishments in West Germany