EU Asks Norway for More Gas, But Oslo Has None to Spare

Despite the EU's continual requests, Norway, like the rest of Europe, is struggling with sky-high electricity prices and has no more gas to give. In response, Oslo emphasised that its fields are running at full capacity, as is its pipeline system.

The EU has long been asking Norway for more gas, but the Nordic country has so far refused to boost its deliveries, citing stretched resources and logistics.

In continuation of the discussion, Norway's Minister of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) Marte Mjøs Persen is slated to travel to Brussels to meet the EU’s Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson later in February to smooth out the differences.

Ahead of the meeting, Mjøs Persen stressed that it is part of the well-established, bilateral energy dialogue between Norway and the EU. However, the situation on the energy market will be a key theme, she added.

To alleviate the current gas pinch, the European Commission has thus turned its attention to Norway, the second-largest gas supplier to Europe after Russia, with which it maintains tensions over Ukraine amid artificially inflated fears of “Russian invasion” Moscow has long denied. “We are talking to other gas suppliers, such as Norway, about increasing deliveries to Europe,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this week.

However, Norway is, like the rest of Europe, struggling with sky-high electricity prices and has no more gas to give. This has been stressed by State Secretary Amund Vik of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. According to the MPE, it had communicated to the EU Commission at the official level that Norwegian companies were making full use of the available production and delivery capacity.

“We export as much as our pipe system can handle,” Vik said, as quoted by the economic news outlet E24.

Mjøs Persen repeated the same message.

“The fact that gas from Norwegian fields is sold by commercial companies, and that our fields – with the exception of the Snøhvit field, which is temporarily shut down – produce at full capacity, is well known to the EU Commission,” Mjøs Persen said.

The Melkøya plant outside Hammerfest, referred to by the minister, produces liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Snøhvit field but has been closed following a fire in 2020. It is expected to be back in operation in late spring this year.

Meanwhile, the high oil and gas prices have been a boon for Norway's state energy company Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, which announced record operating results earlier this week. Over the course of 2021, the company increased its production of oil and gas by 3.2 percent.

“Equinor has focused on safe and stable operation as a reliable energy supplier. Together with partners and the authorities, we facilitated a significant increase in gas production to Europe,” its CEO Anders Opedal said.

While the extraction and use of fossil fuels has been an increasingly controversial issue in Norwegian politics, with several parties lobbying for a complete stop in exploration, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy increased production permits for gas in the Oseberg and Troll fields.

With a population of 5.3 million, Norway remains one of the world's leading exporters of energy resources, covering about 2 percent of global oil demand and 3 percent of the natural gas demand. The oil and gas revenues have laid the basis for the gargantuan Petroleum Fund, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, currently at $1.38 trillion.