Kårstø Gas and Condensate Plant industrial facility | near the village of Susort | Arrival berth

The Karsto complex, which lies 30km north of Stavanger in Norway, processes rich gas from central parts of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), including the Asgard and Mikkel fields, and unstabilised condensate from the Sleipner area of the North Sea.

The plant is owned by the Gassled joint venture of 11 oil and gas companies on the NCS and operated by Norwegian state-owned Gassco. Statoil was the second-biggest shareholder in Gassled with a 29% stake.

The company, however, divested a 24.1% stake for $3.25bn in July 2011. It holds five percent interest in Gassled as the technical service provider of the Karsto plant. State-owned Petoro holds 45.7%.

Karsto started production in mid-1985. It had since undergone a series of upgrades and expansions. The dedicated Sleipner condensate plant came online in October 1993 and Karsto has been processing gas from Asgard and neighbouring fields since October 2000.

The Karsto complex covers an area of 520 acres while the plant lies in 270 acres. The plant processes gas and condensate transferred from 30 fields in Norway. The processing plant was shutdown from August to September 2010 to conduct a comprehensive maintenance and inspection programme. Various upgrades and modifications were completed during the shutdown.

The five-year modernisation programme of upgrading the facilities at the Karsto plant was completed in December 2012.