After the summer break, the chancellor’s first trip is to the north. As the second-largest gas supplier to Germany and the EU, Norway is benefiting from the Russian war of aggression. The country has its largest foreign trade surplus ever, but its pipelines are reaching their limits.
Norway is the second-largest gas supplier to Germany and the EU after Russia. The country currently supplies more than 30 percent of Germany’s natural gas needs. In the coming months, Norway wants to expand its natural gas supplies to Europe and thus help make the EU less dependent on Russian gas – but it is also reaching its limits.
- US prosecutors targeting Giuliani in Trump investigation
- The probability of a major war in the next ten years? Around 35 percent!
From January to April this year, Norway exported nearly 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Germany, almost twice as much as in the same period of 2021, allowing the Scandinavian country to replace some of its imports from Russia. Three of Norway’s seven export pipelines lead to Germany.
The country is currently supplying more gas to the EU than ever before. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Norwegian Energy Ministry adjusted the production licenses for three large offshore fields so that even more natural gas can be produced there. However, the production and pipeline capacities are currently being utilized to the maximum and are reaching their limits.
Energy giant Equinor triples net profit
Norway is also interesting to Germany as a supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – the plant in Hammerfest in northern Norway produces around 4.7 million tons of LNG a year, and the trend is upward. To import LNG, Germany plans to lease two floating liquefied natural gas terminals from Norway. They will be able to convert the LNG into gas offshore. Germany’s onshore LNG terminals are currently still under construction.Norway and Germany are also currently looking into building a pipeline to import green hydrogen from Norway. Hydrogen is considered a climate-friendly energy of the future.
High energy prices are generating record revenues for Norway, which is already one of the richest countries in the world. The net profit of the Norwegian energy giant Equinor has recently tripled. For the second quarter, the group reported a profit of more than 6.6 billion euros – compared with 1.9 billion euros in the prior-year quarter.
