The first natural gas liquids piped from Norsk Hydro's Sture terminal near Bergen reached Statoil's Mongstad refinery further north on 20 March.
Derived from Hydro's Oseberg field in the North Sea, this NGL was carried by the new Vestprosess pipeline along the west Norwegian coast.
Planning for deliveries from Sture, which form part of the design basis for Vestprosess, has been under way since last autumn and means that the pipeline and associated systems are now in full operation.
"We've been waiting longingly for this NGL," says John Stangenes, vice president for the system. "It means we can now make better use of our capacity."
The Vestprosess facility at Mongstad also receives and processes liquefied petroleum gases from the refinery and condensate piped from Statoil's Troll gas treatment plant at nearby Kollsnes.
Mr Stangenes reports that the Sture NGL contains more light components than the Troll condensate, which makes feedstock now reaching Mongstad through the Vestprosess pipeline well balanced and it benefits operation.
Sture is due to deliver 2-3,000 cubic metres of NGL per day to the processing plant.