Vesterled is a natural gas pipeline system, which runs from the Heimdal field ( Heimdal Riser platform) in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

to St Fergus Gas Plant near

Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. The name ''Vesterled'' is the term used by the Vikings for their westward voyages, i.e. ''vesterled'' = "the way westward".

History

Originally the Vesterled pipeline was known as the Frigg Norwegian Pipeline, which was built in 1974–1978 to transport gas from the Frigg field to the United Kingdom. It was laid in parallel to the Frigg UK Pipeline creating the Frigg Transportation System. It became operational in August 1978. As the Frigg field was running to cease production, the spur line from the Heimdal field was put in operation on 1 October 2001.

Technical description

The pipeline is long and has a diameter of . The Vesterled pipeline consists of two sections: a long pipeline links the Heimdal Riser with the former Frigg Norwegian Pipeline. The capacity of Vesterled is about 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The pipeline system is owned by

Gassled Gassled is a partnership to own the offshore natural gas transportation infrastructure at the Norwegian continental shelf. Its pipelines are operated by Gassco. Gassled was created in 2002 and it became operational on 1 January 2003. Its origi ...

and operated by

Gassco Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates 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 t ...

References

External links

{{Portal, Norway, Energy
Vesterled (Gassco website)
Energy infrastructure completed in 1978 North Sea energy Natural gas pipelines in Norway Natural gas infrastructure in the United Kingdom Economy of Scotland Norway–United Kingdom relations Pipelines under the North Sea 1978 establishments in Norway 1978 establishments in Scotland