Gassco

Gassco is a Norwegian state-owned company established in 2001 to operate the Gassled gas pipeline system — the world's longest offshore pipeline network — on behalf of its owners, which include Equinor, Shell and other North Sea licence holders. Gassco acts as a neutral, non-commercial transmission system operator (TSO): it holds no gas itself but manages transport and processing capacity on behalf of shippers. In May 2026, Gassco filed the regulatory outage notice for Kollsnes following a compressor failure on the Troll A platform discovered on 21 May, which cut Troll send-out by 34.6 mcm/day from 26–30 May.

Gassco operates the Kollsnes gas processing plant near Bergen, where Troll field gas arrives via the Troll pipeline before being processed and distributed across the continental European grid. It also operates other major reception terminals including Kårstø, Nyhamna and Tjeldbergodden. The TSO model means Gassco is responsible for planned and unplanned outage notices (REMIT filings), capacity nomination, and maintenance scheduling across the Gassled infrastructure, making its operational communications a primary data source for European gas traders tracking Norwegian supply.

Norwegian gas exported through the Gassled system supplies approximately 25% of EU gas demand, making Gassco's operational decisions highly consequential for European energy security. The May 2026 Troll outage combined with Hammerfest LNG still offline placed more than 50 MCM/day of Norwegian supply out simultaneously, demonstrating the concentration risk that flows from Gassco's infrastructure serving as the single export route for multiple major Norwegian fields.