Gassco was founded by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) on 14 May 2001, and took over the operatorship of all gas transport from the Norwegian continental shelf on 1 January 2002.

This activity had previously been carried out by several companies, and the creation of Gassco formed part of an extensive reorganisation of Norway's oil and gas sector in 2001.

The company was assigned a key role in the further development of the gas transport system, which would contribute to efficient overall utilisation of resources on the NCS.

The company exercises its operator responsibility pursuant to the Norwegian Petroleum Activities Act and to agreements with the transport system owners.

The Kårstø plant, north of Stavanger, plays a key role in the transport and treatment of gas and condensate (light oil) from central parts of the Norwegian continental shelf.

These flows yield methane, ethane, propane, iso and normal butane, naphtha (natural gasoline) and stabilised condensate.

Today the daily processing capacity is up to 143 million scm of gas and 69 000 barrels of NGL, piped in from the Troll, Kvitebjørn and Visund fields.

The treatment process at Kollsnes involves separating out the NGL, and compressing the dry gas for export via Statpipe, Zeepipe, Europipe I and Franpipe.

Germany Great Britain Belgium and France Gassco is responsible as operator for transporting Norwegian gas to continental Europe and the UK through a 7 975-kilometre network of pipelines.