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Natural gas supplies from Norway could set a new record this year as scheduled maintenance is reduced across its facilities, Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) Senior Vice President Helge Haugane told Bloomberg in an interview Tuesday.
“We could get higher volumes than we have seen last year,” the Equinor (EQNR) said the manager, underlining that “in 2023 there was a lot of maintenance, in 2024 there will be less”.
Norway is Europe’s largest natural gas supplier, exporting around 109 billion cubic meters of gas to the continent in 2023, and its importance to Europe’s energy security became clear last summer when unplanned work in some of its plants have caused nervousness in the markets.
“Russian gas is basically exhausted for Europe, and liquefied natural gas will definitely have a longer lead time than pipeline,” Haugane said in the interview, “and that’s one of the reasons why we expect more volatility in the future”.
Equinor (EQNR) has been working to increase capacity at its facilities, including reducing bottlenecks at Kollsnes, where Haugane Saud increased capacity from 144 million m3/d to 156 million m3/d.
The company is building its LNG portfolio, recently signing two deals to buy the fuel from Cheniere Energy and sell it to India’s Deepak Fertilisers.
“We are building an LNG portfolio, with supply from Norway [and] in the United States, and we have other deals that we haven’t disclosed, and so we want to have a diversified outlet for that LNG as well,” Haugane said.