Gassco

Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates 7,800 kilometres (4,800 mi) 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 total consumption of natural gas in Continental Europe is distributed through Gassco. The actual ownership of the pipelines is organised through Gassled, owned by the petroleum companies in the North Sea, including Statoil, Petoro, ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Norsea Gas, Shell, Total and DONG Energy. Though Gassled has a board, it has no employees or operations.

Gassco was founded by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) on 14 May 2001, and took over the operatorship of all gas transport from the Norwegian continental shelf on 1 January 2002. This activity had previously been carried out by several companies, and the creation of Gassco formed part of an extensive reorganisation of Norway’s oil and gas sector in 2001. It complied with the requirements stipulated in the European Union’s gas market directive for organising transport operations in this sector.

The political considerations which underpinned the creation of Gassco found expression in proposition no 36 (2000-01) to the Storting (parliament) and the subsequent recommendation from the Storting’s standing committee on the environment. These documents specified in part that transport and processing plants must serve all gas producers, and that Gassco must act in a neutral manner towards these. The company was assigned a key role in the further development of the gas transport system, which would contribute to efficient overall utilisation of resources on the NCS. More about Gasscos history.