Standing firm against a storm

An energy crisis in Europe and gas pipeline sabotage were among the developments which meant that Linda Nordbø’s first year as Gassco’s head of communication was not what she had expected.

When she joined the gas pipeline operator in the autumn of 2021, Nordbø had a clear vision of how the job would contrast with many years of deadline-driven work in Oslo. 

She was back on her home ground to take on a role which looked more family-friendly for a mother of small children, and envisaged being largely able to manage her own daily life. 

It would have been difficult for her to be more wrong. 

Gassco is based in Karmøy north of Stavanger, at the heart of a region which absolutely deserves to be called beautiful, but where terms such as “weather-beaten” spring easily to mind. 

Nor does the company’s office building at Bygnes cry out for attention in an open landscape, where the sea and the elements create a dramatic backdrop. 

“That’s actually a good picture of what we’re meant to be like,” says Randi Viksund, head of staffs and support for Gassco. “However fierce the storms outside, it’ll be calm, concentrated and relatively anonymous here.” 

She was responsible for unintentionally giving Nordbø false hopes about the content and scope of her new job, emphasising that the company had always attracted little notice. 

Viksund told the newcomer that she was joining a workplace where people were always left in peace to fulfil Gassco’s mandate to delivering gas stably and safely to Europe. 

Then came the storm. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pitched Europe into an energy crisis and greatly strengthened the spotlight turned on the Norwegian petroleum industry. 

“We already felt that something was brewing in late 2021,” Viksund says.

“Energy-market tensions and the constant cuts in Russian gas deliveries indicated that bad weather was coming.” 

Transition 

Nordbø initially got off to a fine start in her new job, even though she noted rising interest in Gassco’s role as the capacity picture changed. 

But it was not until the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic during September 2022 that life really became hectic for her. 

The day the incident occurred, she had flown to Oslo to try on her wedding dress.

“My plane had just landed when the news came, and I quickly grasped that this was serious. During the first few hours, my phone rang incessantly. I simply had to get back.” 

While Nordbø was getting to grips with the flood of calls from home and abroad, Viksund and the rest of Gassco’s senior management were concentrated on the big picture. 

“My first thought was that these weren’t our pipelines,” Viksund recalls. “But, of course, we understood that this would also have substantial consequences for us. 

“So we had to prioritise, and were quickly asking ourselves what was important now and what our job should be.” 

It was decided that the control room which forms the heart of the company would be safeguarded. No visitors were to be allowed, and attention would concentrate on day-to-day tasks. 

This facility manages gas exports through the pipelines from Norway. Many processes are required to deliver gas in the right quantities and with the correct specifications. 

That calls in turn for an overview of and knowledge about the physical preconditions for gas transport in real time. Various gas streams must be blended to achieve the right quality, and the volumes available need to be known. 

“It’s complex, and demands concentration and calm,” Viksund explains.

“That’s why the control room had to be protected.” 

The next step was to inform the employees and help them to feel secure, she says. In a chaotic initial phase after the pipeline blasts, this became an important success criterion. 

With 20 years of experience in the company, she knows its organisation well. But conditions now were entirely unfamiliar. They had admittedly drilled a lot on similar scenarios, but this was no exercise. 

“In my view, we handled the first phase extremely well, and that wasn’t a matter of chance,” Viksund says. “We’d trained for such eventualities, and were therefore prepared.” 

Reassuring 

“The calm in the control room has fascinated me from the start,” says Nordbø. “Seeing this remain intact after the Nord Stream incidents was reassuring. I tried to maintain the same unflappability in my meeting with the media.” 

Numerous and steadily increasing enquiries flooded into her four-strong communication department. Priority had to be given to calls from Norway and the markets which receive its gas. 

During this initial period, Nordbø found that very many queries were about capacity – could Norwegian deliveries increase so much that the scale of the energy crisis was contained? 

“The questions were pretty similar from everyone who got in touch,” she says. “They received by and large the same response. We shared facts and tried to help maintain calm.” 

As the days passed, however, Nordbø noticed a difference between the Norwegian and foreign press. 

“The foreigners were concerned with security of supply, while journalists in Norway concentrated on capacity and security. They asked few questions about gas.” 

Podcast

Want to hear Linda Nordbø talk about her first year in Gassco and how daily life changed for the whole company? Listen to the PSA’s podcast Å være klar til det uventede (On being ready for the unexpected, in Norwegian only). Search for the PSA on your preferred podcast platform. 

Responsible 

Gassco currently has just over 350 employees, and is responsible as operator for safe and efficient gas transport from the NCS. It also has an overall responsibility for operating and developing a network of pipelines more than 8 800 kilometres long. 

More and more questions about this transport infrastructure and its security were eventually put to Nordbø and her department. 

“We noticed that enquiries from Norwegian media shifted from capacity to security – what are we doing to safeguard the infrastructure and are our routines good enough?” she recalls. 

Everyone got the same answer, which seemed reasonably well received. But she noticed that questions began to shift towards Norway’s sharing culture, and whether it made sense to be so open. 

“We were often asked about the maps of the pipeline systems being freely available, for example, and whether the trust-based system was perhaps too naive in emergency conditions.“ 

Trust 

Viksund is convinced that the Norwegian model is the reason why these circumstances were handled so well. “This reflected the openness and trust between us, the companies and the government. 

“I felt on a number of occasions how privileged I was to be in such a system. Greater solidarity and pride were created when a big potential existed to increase discord and division. 

“That fact that you can pick up a phone and quickly reach key personnel in the companies, either offshore or at the land plants, is incredibly important in such circumstances. 

“The same applies to the government. Close contacts were maintained and conversations were always constructive.” 

Confidential 

The media also asked a number of questions which could not be answered because the details were confidential. Many wanted to know how the pipeline system was protected, for example. Even in such cases, Viksund says, openness was a key. 

“We took the line where security was concerned that we couldn’t go into details, but that our level of preparedness had been increased, extra measures were taken, and we were collaborating closely with the companies and government.  

“That response was met with understanding. Apart from the great attention they paid, the press gave us good working conditions.” 

Educational 

Both she and Nordbø agree that the time before and after the Nord Stream incident has been challenging but educational. “First and foremost, it was good see that we were actually rigged for this,” says Nordbø. 

The high level of attention demanded a lot from the whole company, and her department had to maintain close contacts with other parts of Gassco to give sufficiently precise answers. 

“It’s the same in all such organisations, of course, but we were in a position here where the external desire for information was almost insatiable,” she says. “That demanded a lot from us all, but I think we handled it well.” 

Viksund is happy with the questions they asked internally during the first phase – the decision to concentrate on the core assignments, with everything else secondary. 

She nevertheless believes that the commitment from all employees has been extraordinary, without creating too much in the way of wear and tear. 

“We acquired a kind of enhanced sense that we all had an important job, and that a huge amount depended on us watching our step and doing our job. That gave the organisation a boost.” 

Fallen 

Well into 2023, the workload has declined somewhat for Gassco’s communication team. Fewer calls are received and, even if daily life has not quite returned to normal, Viksund believes it is heading that way. 

“That’s absolutely the case. But it’s important to remember that, if you have good routines in normal circumstances, they’ll also function in a crisis. 

“This, at any rate, is something we’ve learnt. And it helps that we drill often and work to visualise various scenarios.” 

The level of attention devoted to Gassco has increased, and much of it has been of the right kind. 

“We’ve received a lot of praise for our calm and openness,” says Viksund, and notes that this was highlighted when Gassco won the Norwegian Petroleum Society’s industry prize for 2022. 

Nordbø admits that her first year in the job was not what she had expected.

“We often talk about that around the kitchen table at home. 

“And even if it’s not quite as busy at work any longer, I feel that Gassco is more on the radar and in people’s awareness now – for better or worse. 

“On the one hand, the attention can be both time-consuming and wearying. On the other, it’s also an opportunity to tell the world who we are and what we do – that we can be relied on, and are able to stand firm against a storm.” 

Norway’s gas transport system

Transport capacity in the Norwegian pipeline network is currently some 117 billion standard cubic metres (scm) of dry gas per annum. 

Integrated in the system are three land plants – Kårstø, Kollsnes and Nyhamna – which receive rich gas from the fields and send on dry gas to receiving terminals abroad. 

The latter include two each in Germany and the UK, one apiece in Belgium and France, and one at Nybro in Denmark which delivers gas to the Danish and Polish markets. 

Most of the system is owned through the Gassled partnership, withe Gassco as the neutral and independent operator. 

Source: Gassco 

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