The Troll Phase 3 project from Equinor ASA - gas expansion reshapes a Norwegian giant

Reviewed: ad hoc news B2B & Pro desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-23, 19:46. Details in the imprint.

The Troll Phase 3 project from Equinor ASA starts in thick grey North Sea weather, with waves slapping against support vessels as new subsea templates are lowered to the seabed. Engineers watch on deck as cables creak and cold spray touches their faces.

How Troll Phase 3 grows

Troll Phase 3 is an expansion of gas production from the giant Troll field, adding new subsea wells tied back to the existing Troll A platform and Kollsnes processing plant. According to Equinor, it targets gas in the western part of the field with a stepwise development plan. Equinor’s official Troll Phase 3 page details the concept.

Project director Helge Haldorsen describes Troll Phase 3 as a way to maintain high gas exports to Europe while using existing infrastructure to keep costs and emissions down. The development is designed for a production horizon well beyond 2030, using subsea technology refined on other Norwegian fields.

Technical concept and capacity

Troll Phase 3 is based on new subsea templates, each holding multiple horizontal gas wells that are controlled from Troll A via umbilicals laid along the seabed. Equinor states that production from these wells will be processed at Kollsnes, feeding into the Gassco-operated export system that supplies European buyers. An Equinor news release outlines startup and export targets.

The company highlights that Troll Phase 3 is designed to lift recoverable gas volumes further from a field that already underpins long-term contracts to Germany, the UK and continental Europe. Troll overall has more than 1,300 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas, and this phase helps tap parts of the reservoir that earlier projects did not fully access. Data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate confirm Troll’s scale.

Cost, emissions and design choices

The Troll Phase 3 concept aims to minimize new topside work by reusing Troll A’s power and control systems. Equinor has emphasized that the project is powered from shore, which reduces offshore CO? emissions compared with gas-turbine-driven platforms and supports Norway’s wider carbon targets.

Project manager Kristin Kragseth notes that much of the value comes from incremental gas volumes at relatively low marginal cost, since pipelines, processing and export capacity are largely in place. That makes Troll Phase 3 a classic brownfield expansion rather than a greenfield gamble, with risk concentrated on drilling and subsea execution.

What this means for gas buyers

For European utilities and traders, Troll Phase 3 matters because it helps anchor long-term pipeline gas flows that compete with LNG cargoes. Buyers that book capacity on the Norwegian system rely on fields like Troll to meet baseload demand and balance wind and solar output.

In market reports, analysts often link Norwegian gas projects to price spreads between hubs such as TTF, NBP and German trading points. Sustained deliveries from Troll can dampen scarcity premiums and give buyers more confidence in multi-year supply portfolios, especially for industrial consumers.

Equinor’s broader gas strategy

Troll Phase 3 also fits into Equinor’s strategy to be a key gas supplier during Europe’s transition away from coal and high-emission sources. CEO Anders Opedal has repeatedly argued that Norwegian gas with low upstream emissions can support the shift while renewables and hydrogen scale up.

The company balances such upstream developments with investments in offshore wind and carbon capture, aiming to show that cash flows from fields like Troll can help fund new energy. Investors watch whether this balance remains convincing as spending on both sides rises.

Stock context and trading

For equity holders, Troll Phase 3 is one piece of a larger investment mosaic that includes share buy-backs, dividends and portfolio shifts. Equinor ASA shares (ISIN NO0010096985) trade primarily on the Oslo Stock Exchange, where oil and gas developments often feed into earnings expectations and valuation multiples.

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