Business Insider: Norway Has Overtaken Russia As Europe's Biggest Supplier Of Natural Gas

The Scandinavian country has increased record production volumes and plans to maintain them until 2030.

As Moscow cuts gas supplies to EU countries for the sake of political pressure, Norway has managed to become the main supplier of gas in Europe, taking this role away from Russia.

Business Insider writes about this, recalling that the shortage of fuel on the continent can create serious problems for European industry. Oslo is assured that they are going to produce maximum volumes of gas in the coming years.

“I expect that we can maintain the production levels we are at now until 2030,” said Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland.

Official forecasts put Oslo on track to lift its production of natural gas by 8% this year, compared with 2021. In this way, Norway can beat a five-year-old record. It has overtaken Russia as Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas after the Kremlin cut back its gas exports to hit back against western sanctions. Business Insider also recalls that in May the EU agreed to impose an embargo on Russian oil supplied by sea. However, no restrictions on Russian gas have been imposed so far.

Russia staged an energy crisis by reducing its own exports even without such decisions of the European side. On Friday, Russia said it will temporarily close its Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Although it had already slashed its capacity to 20% in July. Tightening supply has driven European natural gas prices to rise sharply. Benchmark Dutch TTF gas futures have jumped 220% since the start of June.

"At the same time, although Norway is going to increase gas production, it does not plan to look for ways to make the cost of European fuel more reasonable," Aasland said.

"In principle, the market is predictable When there is scarcity, prices are high. That also contributes to increasing production and steers the gas to the markets that need it most," the Norwegian minister said.