Equinor and partners have received permission to increase gas exports from two fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to supply the tight European market, Equinor said on Monday.
Production permits for the Oseberg and Troll fields will now cover an extra 1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas for each field starting from Oct. 1 for the next 12 months.
Specifically, Equinor and its partners have received production permits for gas starting from Oct. 1 increasing from 5 bcm to 6 bcm for Oseberg and from 36 bcm to 37 bcm for Troll.
This follows the company’s steps taken in June for the company to evaluate and develop concepts for enhancing production and exports to the European market, which resulted in enhanced production permits from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for the two fields.
'The production permits allow us to produce more gas from these two important fields this fall and through the winter. We believe that this is very timely as Europe is facing an unusually tight market for natural gas,' said Helge Haugane, senior vice president for gas and power at Equinor.
Europe is entering the autumn-winter period with significant natural gas shortages in underground storage facilities.
European natural gas prices in the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hit record high levels on Sept. 15, surging to €77 per megawatt-hour.
Norwegian gas exports maintained a stable high level in 2020, with gas exports of about 112 bcm, mainly to other countries in Europe.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr