Equinor awards contracts worth NKr6Bn for four subsea development projects

Under the contracts, TechnipFMC will deliver subsea production systems for Brime, Omega Sør and Tyrihans Nord. It will also install rigid pipelines on the Troll field. The linepipe will be supplied by Tenaris. OneSubsea will deliver a subsea production system for the TWIN project, as well as umbilicals for all the other projects. Ocean Installer has been awarded the contract for marine operations. They will install and connect the subsea facilities, control cables and flexible pipelines. NOV will deliver flexible pipelines to Omega Sør, Tyrihans Nord and Brime.

Equinor senior vice president projects Gunnar Nakken said, “We envisage around 75 subsea developments towards 2035. To realise these resources, we need to develop smaller discoveries faster and at a lower cost than today. This requires significant changes in how we plan and execute subsea projects. Our ambition is to halve both costs and execution time through simpler processes and standardised solutions together with our partners and suppliers.”

Equinor chief procurement officer Jannicke Nilsson said, “We are strengthening competition and predictability and giving suppliers the opportunity to deliver on several projects at the same time. It is essential to reduce costs, and the response from the industry confirms significant improvement potential. We will now scale this collaboration to make marginal discoveries profitable and maintain activity levels on the Norwegian continental shelf.” 

Together, the four projects will contribute between 130M and 220M barrels of oil equivalent to future production from the Norwegian continental shelf.

TWIN which will be tied back to Troll A; Omega Sør is to be tied back to Snorre A; Tyrihans Nord is to be produced via the Kristin platform; and Brime is to be tied back to Gullfaks C via the Visund Sør template. So far, only the TWIN project has been sanctioned by the owners and in accordance with the Petroleum Act the partnership has sent notification to the Ministry of Energy regarding the development. The remaining projects will be processed and sanctioned in accordance with the decision-making processes of the partnerships and the authorities.

TWIN is the third step in a phased development of the gas cap in Troll West. The partnership has decided to invest just over NKr4Bn (US$408M) in the project, which will contribute around 11Bn standard cubic metres of gas. The project consists of two wells in a new template and a pipeline connected to existing subsea facilities. The control cable and MEG line will be extended to the new development. The gas will be produced via Troll A before being sent to Kollsnes. TWIN stands for Troll West Increased gas recovery North – increased recovery of gas in the northern part of the gas cap in Troll West. The project is a partnership between Equinor Energy (30.55%, operator), Petoro (55.93%), Norske Shell (8.19%), TotalEnergies (3.69%) and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia (1.64%).

The other projects are currently in the early phase. Brime is planned to be developed with four wells drilled from a template tied back to an existing subsea template at Visund Sør. From there, the wellstream, which is mainly gas, will be sent to Gullfaks C for processing before being transported onwards to Kårstø for export. Brime also provides the basis for a possible phased development of Nøkken, planned as sidetracks from two of the wells at Brime. Recoverable volumes in Brime are estimated at 16-34 million barrels of oil equivalent. It is a partnership between Equinor Energy (74.66%) (operator) and Petoro (25.34%).

Omega Sør is an oil discovery made near the Snorre field in spring 2026, with recoverable volumes then estimated at between 25M and 89M barrels. The discovery is due to be developed with a template and a Cap-X production satellite connected to existing subsea facilities. The oil is planned to be produced via Snorre A before being shipped to market via Gullfaks. It is a partnership between Equinor Energy (31%, operator), Petoro (30%), Harbour Energy Norge (24.5%), INPEX (9.6%) and Vår Energi (4.9%).

Tyrihans Nord is a discovery from 1984 that is due to be developed with two wells in a new template connected to the existing production pipeline between the Tyrihans subsea field and the Kristin platform in the Norwegian Sea. From there, the gas will be sent onwards to Kårstø. Volumes are estimated at between 20M and 30M barrels of oil equivalent, mainly gas. It is a partnership between Equinor Energy (36.32%, operator), TotalEnergies (23.15%), Petoro (22.52%) and Vår Energi (18.02%).

Sissel, also in the first wave, was discovered in January 2026. The original plan was to develop the discovery by drilling a well through a new Cap-X structure. This has now been simplified so that the well will be drilled through the existing Utgard template. Volumes are currently estimated at between 6M and 28M barrels of oil equivalent. It is a partnership between Equinor Energy (50%, operator) and Orlen Upstream Norway (50%.)