The first environment surveys at Kårstø north of Stavanger were carried out as early as 1980, five years before the gas processing plant came on stream.
These studies aimed to acquire knowledge about whether and to what extent emissions from the facility would affect air, forest and sea in the region.
Surveys of air quality around the plant have established that its emissions are barely measurable, and that long-distance transport is the primary source of polluting components.
Special monitoring of the surrounding birch woods was prompted by claims that emissions were causing local damage which could get worse over time. Conducted over a five-year period, this work showed that the forest ecology was in good shape and in line with expectations based on prevailing growth conditions.
A search programme has been developed at Kårstø to identify possible diffuse leaks from valves and flanges around the plant. Advanced techniques are also deployed every third year to measure emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at the facility.
Treated water from a mechanical treatment plant is led out to sea together with the coolant water. Attention focuses here on possible environmental impact of releasing warm coolant. Hard bottom investigations involve diver registration of fauna and flora from the foreshore to a maximum depth of 30 metres. Biological variations found off Kårstø cannot be ascribed to coolant discharges, but reflect other natural conditions.
Naturkraft was commissioned to carry out a hard bottom investigation before its gas-fired power station at Kårstø became operational in the autumn of 2007. This was intended to define a baseline for future discharges by the company and for comparison with previous survey findings at the plant.
Various types of environmental monitoring will be coordinated by the Kårstø facility and Naturkraft in future.
StatoilHydro has technical operating responsibility for Europe's largest gas processing plant of its kind at Kårstø, north of Stavanger
Gassco is the operator of the processing plant. The Kårstø complex plays a key role in the transport and treatment of gas and condensate from important areas of the Norwegian continental shelf. More than 30 fields are tied back to Kårstø via pipelines.
Around 30 per cent of the natural gas delivered from Norway every year is exported via the complex.
At Kårstø, the gas is processed and the wet components such as condensate, ethane, propane, butane and naphtha are separated. These products are then shipped to customers around the world.
Dry gas (primarily methane) is transported in pipelines to customers in Europe. The Norwegian gas transport system is owned by the Gassled partnership, in which StatoilHydro has a holding of 32 per cent.
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