For many years the Cassandras have been crying that North Sea / Norwegian Sea natural gas reserves are running out. While this may be so in the North Sea, increasing volumes of gas are being produced northwards in the Norwegian Sea. Here a joint venture compising Statoil (50.331%), Petoro (11.946%), OMV (9.073%), Shell (9.019%), Total (5.110%), RWE Dea (4.791%), ConocoPhillips (4.452%), Edison (2.396%), Maersk Oil (2.396%), and GDF Suez (0.486%) is leading the development of a new 480 km, 36 inch diameter pipeline, called Polarled, from the Aasta Hansteen field to Nyhamna, one of Norway’s largest gas processing plants, for further distribution of an added 70 million cubic meters of gas to destinations around Europe. The venture will require an investment of $4.3 billion.

The consortium believes the expansion project shall be mostly completed by end 2015.

The scope of the work encompasses ground work, piping and cable culverts, roads and parking lots, several isolated buildings, foundations for mechanical units and modules, pipe racks for gas pipe packages, various finishing work and landscaping.

“Polarled will have great and strategic impact on the future development of the region. The new pipeline will open a new gas province and stimulate exploration and resource development, which will fortify Statoil’s position as an exporter of gas to Europe,” says Jan Heiberg, acting head of the pipelines and processing unit of MPR asset management