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Norway 'will fuel Europe'



By Upstream staff 

Norway will increase natural gas deliveries to the European Union and might build a new pipeline to help Europe reduce its dependance on gas imports from Russia, the country's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store told German media.

"Norwegian gas supplies to Europe will increase further in the future. We're getting more gas from the North Sea fields thanks to new technology. And we can uncover new fields in the North," Store said in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt.

"We're betting that there will be close cooperation with Germany. In the future it may be possible to build a new pipeline with these supplies in the North," he said.

Store said this would depend on what deposits Norway uncovered in the Arctic Barents Sea.

"That will be key to ensuring supplies for the next 50 to 100 years," he was quoted as saying.

The security of European gas supplies became a sensitive issue at the start of the year after Russian gas giant Gazprom cut off Ukraine's gas supplies due to a dispute over the price Kiev would pay.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders have repeatedly said Europe needs to take more gas from Norway and less from Russia, the main supplier to Germany and the EU.

Moscow denies using its plentiful gas supplies as a political weapon but European officials have expressed fears that the EU could be vulnerable if it does not diversify its gas sources.

Norway is Germany's second biggest gas supplier after Russia.


Monday, 13 November, 2006, 11:53 GMT  | last updated: Monday, 13 November, 2006, 11:53 GMT

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