Norway to increase gas supplies to Europe amid soaring prices

Against the backdrop of a sharp rise in gas prices in Europe, the Norwegian company Equinor announced that from October 1, it will increase the volume of natural gas exports to the continent, Report informs referring to the Voice of America.

Equinor is the second biggest gas supplier to Europe after Russia’s Gazprom.

“Equinor and its partners have received permission to increase gas exports from two fields on the Norwegian continental shelf to supply the tight European market,” the company noted, pointing to ‘unusual’ conditions in the European gas market as winter approaches.

The report mentions an increase of 2 billion cubic meters, which, according to Reuters, means an increase in exports from Norway by 2 percent.

Gas prices in Europe began to rise sharply this summer, and some stock prices had climbed more than 250 percent since January last year. This also pushes prices for home consumers, which in many European countries are protected at the state level - particularly in Germany, an increase of 11.5 percent is envisaged.

France, Italy, and other countries on the continent have announced additional subsidies to protect domestic consumers and to help industries.

The UK government announced possible loans to support companies under pressure.

Among the reasons are high gas consumption during the last long winter, as well as increased consumption by industrial enterprises, which are resuming work after a slowdown at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

International energy prices have also risen in response to restrictions and penalties on emissions from coal-fired power plants in Europe, refurbishment of nuclear power plants on the continent, and due to increased demand for liquefied gas in Asia.

An important circumstance on the market is also the fact that Russia’s Gazprom during the summer reduced gas supplies to Europe, and against the background of competition with Asia, European gas storage facilities now have smaller reserves than usual.

Ukraine, the biggest transporter of Russian gas to Europe, accuses Russia of deliberately cutting transit volumes through Ukrainian pipelines.

Head of the Ukrainian GTS Operator, Serhiy Makogon, in several media interviews, has repeatedly accused Russia of ‘blackmailing’ Europe by what he called ‘artificial shortage’ of fuel.

Ukraine argues that Russia is interested in gas shortages in Europe, mainly to obtain faster approval for the launch of the newly built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which runs along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

“Ukraine is constantly offering additional transit capacities to supply additional volumes of gas to the EU. However, Gazprom, unfortunately, constantly refuses them,” Makogon said this month.

“It seems that with this behavior, Gazprom not only stimulates further gas prices growth in the EU but also sends extremely transparent signals to Europe that additional gas volumes are possible only through Nord Stream 2,” he added.

Russia rejects accusations of gas manipulation and stresses that it is fulfilling contractual commitments, but experts point to a decrease in Russian gas exports compared to previous years.