Kårstø is an industrial facility located near the village of Susort, along the

Boknafjorden Boknafjord or Boknafjorden ( en, Bokna Fjord) is a fjord located in Rogaland county, Norway. The huge fjord lies between the cities of Stavanger and Haugesund and dominates the central part of the county. The main part of the fjord is shared ...

, in the municipality of

Tysvær Tysvær is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the Haugalandet region. The municipality is located on the Haugalandet peninsula on the northern side of the Boknafjorden, just east of the towns of Kopervik and Haugesund. ...

Rogaland Rogaland () is a county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 479,892. The admin ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. The site features a number of natural gas processing plants that refine

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

and condensate from the fields in the northern parts of 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 ...

, including the Åsgard, Mikkel, and Sleipner gas fields. The Kårstø processing complex is Europe's biggest export port for

natural gas liquids Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natu ...

(NGL) and the third largest in the world. The industrial site is also the location for the now-closed Kårstø Power Station.

Operation

The first plant on the site opened on 25 July 1985 and it exported the first 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 betwee ...

on October 15th of that year. Gas is transported from the North Sea via

Statpipe The Statpipe pipeline is a natural gas system, which links northern North Sea gas fields with the Norway's gas export system. It transports gas from Statfjord, Gullfaks, Heimdal, Veslefrikk, Snorre, Brage, Tordis and Statfjord gas fields. ...

and Åsgard Transport. Condensate is received from the Sleipner field and stabilised and fractionated in a separate plant that started operation in 1993. About of stabilised condensate are exported from Kårstø each year, by ship.

Natural Gas Liquids Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natu ...

(NGL) are separated from the rest of the gas and split into

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as ...

butane Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name but ...

isobutane Isobutane, also known as ''i''-butane, 2-methylpropane or methylpropane, is a chemical compound with molecular formula HC(CH3)3. It is an isomer of butane. Isobutane is a colourless, odourless gas. It is the simplest alkane with a tertiary carbo ...

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ' ...

, and

ethane Ethane ( , ) is an organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is isolated on an industrial scale from natural gas and as a petroc ...

. The propane is stored in two large mountain halls with a total capacity of . The rest of the refined products are stored in tanks. The facility is the third largest export port for

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cookin ...

(LPG) in the world and exported all around the globe. In 2002, 575 shiploads of LPG, ethane, naphtha, and stabilised condensate were sent.

Gassnova Gassnova SF is the Norwegian state enterprise for carbon capture and storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting i ...

has been engaged for the development of technology for full-scale CO₂-capture at the gas-fired power plant and large-scale transport and geological storage of CO₂ from Kårstø. Annual ethane production is and this is sold on long term agreements to the companies Borealis, I/S Noretyl, and

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world a ...

Dry gas Dry gas is an alcohol-based additive gas used in automobiles to prevent water from freezing in water-contaminated fuels and to restore combustive power to gasoline spoiled by water. It is added to the fuel tank and binds to the water to burn it of ...

is exported via

Europipe II Europipe II is a natural gas pipeline from the Kårstø processing plant north of Stavanger to a receiving terminal at Dornum in Germany. It came on stream on 1 October 1999. Route It starts from Kårstø processing plant and runs about on ...

to Dornum in Germany and via

and

Norpipe Norpipe is a subsea oil and natural gas pipelines system in the North Sea. It supplies oil from the Norwegian Ekofisk and associated fields in the North Sea to the United Kingdom and natural gas to Germany. Oil pipeline The Norpipe oil pipe ...

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 ...

. The pipes are 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 orig ...

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 tota ...

. The company Naturkraft (owned by

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower company, fully owned by the Norwegian state. The Statkraft Group is a generator of renewable energy, as well as Norway’s largest and the Nordic region's third largest energy producer. Statkraft develops and genera ...

and Statoil) operated the Kårstø Power Station, a

-fired

thermal power plant A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a steam ...

at Kårstø from 2007 until 2014.

Operation

References

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