North Sea – Operational Scenario Under Capacity-Constrained System Conditions (Sleipner Area)

This document presents a system-level operational scenario for offshore gas production under capacity-constrained conditions on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), with a focus on the Sleipner area satellite cluster. The analysis demonstrates that current production limitations are not primarily caused by a lack of infrastructure, but by restricted access to processing, compression, and export capacity due to allocation mechanisms. A modular, vessel-based gas transfer system (TSTM-M concept) is introduced as a parallel flow pathway that complements existing infrastructure. The system enables gas transport from satellite fields to pipeline entry points independently of centralized hub scheduling. Key elements of the scenario include: short-cycle offshore transport (~20–24 h cycles) modular scalability through parallel vessel deployment optional integration of floating buffer storage units for decoupling production, transport, and injection operation without new fixed offshore infrastructure The document outlines how such a system could: enable production of volumes currently constrained by capacity allocation reduce dependency on hub access timing improve utilization of existing pipeline infrastructure (e.g. Gassled system) This scenario represents a broader class of near-infrastructure constraints across the NCS, where access—not connectivity—is the limiting factor.