Norway’s Troll Gives Europe Energy Access Into 21st Century

Unlike its unpredictable namesake of Norse mythology, there’s a new troll in Norway that will be very useful to humans.

Troll is an offshore platform that sits on the largest undersea gas field in Europe, is tied firmly to the North Sea bed and will provide heat and lighting to 50 million people in Europe for 50 years.

“Troll is tamed, if a troll can be,” said Harald Norvik, president of the Norwegian state-owned oil company Statoil AS. “As a rule, one cannot rely on trolls. But this is one we can rely on.”

King Harald V last month inaugurated the field linked to a new gas processing plant at Kollsnes, north of Bergen. The gas will be piped to the sprawling Kollsnes plant for treatment before flowing to the Continent.

The huge gas field will eventually send gas to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria and Spain, making Norway a leading energy exporters.

The Scandinavian country, already the second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, supplies nearly 3 million barrels of oil a day to the international market.

With Troll, Norway will join the top five of the global league of gas exporters along with Algeria, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Russia.

Increased natural gas production will cushion Norway’s state finances once its crude output starts to dwindle in the next decade.

Troll’s development cost around $4.79 billion, but its gas at today’s prices is estimated at a market value of $108 billion. Of the total value, the Norwegian state will take a cut of around $92.6 billion in ownership dues and taxes.

Troll is as immense as the power it generates. Towed out to sea last year, it is the tallest structure ever to be moved across the Earth. The platform stands 1,549 feet and weighs 1 million metric tons. The concrete--aptly chosen, for legend says trolls turn to stone in sunlight--structure contains 100,000 tons of reinforcement steel, the equivalent of 15 Eiffel Towers.

Troll sits in more than 1,000 feet of water. It is strong enough to withstand the battering from more than 5 million waves, which can be up to 100 feet high in the stormy waters of the North Sea.

“Norway is becoming a major gas nation,” said Energy Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Operated by Statoil, Troll was discovered in 1979 by Norske Shell AS, the Norwegian subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group.

In the early 1980s, as Cold War tensions remained high, Troll was viewed as vital to Western European energy policy.

In a new book called “Troll--Gas for Generations,” Statoil’s Bjoern Vidar Leroeen says former President Ronald Reagan saw Troll as an opportunity to eliminate Europe’s reliance on gas supplies from what was then the Soviet Union.

“The major gas contracts [of Europe] with the U.S.S.R. were not to the U.S.A.’s taste. As the leading power in NATO, the Americans feared that ties forged by Western Europe with the Soviets in the energy sector would become too strong,” Leroeen wrote.

Troll holds about 40% of total Norwegian reserves. It will open its taps on Oct. 1.