Norway, which became Europe’s biggest gas supplier following the war in Ukraine, will maintain its supplies at the current level “for the next four or five years”, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre promised on Friday, according to AFP.
Gas storage and transfer unitPhoto: DreamsTime / Viktord50
Jonas Gahr Støre welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on an offshore platform on the Troll field off Norway.
To compensate, at least in part, for the reduction in Russian supplies, Norway increased its gas production last year and currently covers between 30 and 40 percent of the continent’s needs.
“Putin tried to blackmail the EU by depriving us of 80% of Russian gas supplies,” said von der Leyen.
Stoltenberg stressed the importance of “securing this type of infrastructure (like the Troll field), which is extremely important for our economies, for our daily life and also for our security.”
Located about 65 km west of Bergen, the country’s second largest city, Troll is the largest gas field and one of the largest oil fields in Norway: it alone supplies the equivalent of 10% of Europe’s gas consumption.
Infrastructure is vulnerable, as demonstrated by the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
Building on the lessons of this troubling episode, NATO and the EU have established a working group to strengthen the protection of their critical infrastructures. His first meeting took place on Thursday.
Following a German-Norwegian request, the Atlantic Alliance also agreed to establish a coordinating body for the protection of maritime infrastructure.
As a sign of this increased vigilance, two Norwegian and German ships sailed off the platform on Friday, as well as a maritime surveillance plane and a helicopter. (photo: Dreamstime)