Polarled Pipeline Now in Place

On Monday 28 September, the final pipe in the 482.4 kilometre long Polarled Pipeline was laid at the Aasta Hansteen field at a depth of 1,260 metres in the Norwegian Sea.

Polarled is the first pipeline on the Norwegian continental shelf that crosses the Arctic Circle and opens up a brand new highway for gas from the Norwegian Sea to Europe.

The pipeline, which has a diameter of 36 inches, extends from Nyhamna in Møre og Romsdal to the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea and was laid by the world's largest pipelaying vessel: “Solitaire” from Allseas.
 
The pipelaying work commenced in March this year and the pipeline consists of more than 40,000 pipes, each of which is 12 metres in length.  Polarled is the deepest pipeline on the Norwegian continental shelf. At the Aasta Hansteen field, the pipeline reaches a depth of 1,260 metres.

It is the first time ever that a pipe that is 36 inches in diameter has been laid at such a depth.  The pipeline’s capacity will be up to 70 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.

Money saved
"We are delivering Polarled under budget. The original investment budget for the pipeline project was NOK 11.1 billion. We now expect an investment level of around NOK 7.5 billion. This is due to good planning, good market knowledge and good execution - and the fact that we could combine several large projects when we went to the market and negotiated for pipes and vessels. Based on this, we were able to achieve favourable conditions in the market with regard to capacity and price," says Torger Rød, head of projects in Statoil (STO).

Building for the future
In the initial stage, only the gas from Aasta Hansteen will be transported through Polarled, however the 36-inch diameter pipe has space for more:

"We have therefore installed six connection points. Call them future slip roads to the new gas highway," says Håkon Ivarjord, project director for the Polarled development project.

"With this pipeline, we open up for the export of gas to Europe from a completely new area, and with the infrastructure in place it will also be more attractive to explore the area," he concludes.

“Energy supply security is essential to the EU and the individual European countries. Tying in a new Norwegian Sea area  to the gas transportation network Polarled will be an important link for further gas export, thus strengthening Norway’s position as a reliable supplier to the European gas market,” says Grete B Haaland, head of  asset management in Statoil’s  Marketing, Midstream and Processing business area.