Norway’s natural gas exports reached a record high in 2024 and are expected to stay near this level in the coming years, according to Gassco, the country’s gas export system operator.
Last year, Norway’s gas exports to Europe hit a new peak, with Norwegian gas making up 30% of Europe’s imports and about 9% of its total energy consumption. Gassco reported that 117.6 billion cubic meters of gas were transported from the Norwegian shelf to Europe, marking a historic milestone.
Gassco CEO Frode Leversund credited the record deliveries to strong cooperation among all involved parties on the Norwegian continental shelf. Key factors included increased capacity at the Kollsnes processing plant, stable production from the gas fields, and consistent operation of pipelines, processing plants, and terminals across Europe and the UK.
On the same day, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate released its annual report for 2024, showing that Norway’s natural gas production also reached an all-time high in 2023. Torgeir Stordal, the director general of the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, noted that following the end of gas transport from Russia through Ukraine at the end of 2023, Norway’s gas has become even more crucial to Europe’s energy supply.
The report indicated that overall oil and gas production off Norway’s coast remained at its highest level since 2009 and is expected to stay high and stable. However, production is projected to gradually decline toward the end of the 2020s.
Exploration activity on the Norwegian shelf also remained high in 2024, although most discoveries were small. Despite this, Stordal emphasized that even smaller finds can create significant value and that exploration in the region is highly profitable for the country.
The Directorate reiterated that more exploration and investment are necessary to prevent a decline in output from Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer later this decade.
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