LOC17:15
14:15 GMT
BRUSSELS, June 23 (KUNA) - The European Union and Norway Thursday agreed to develop an even deeper long-term energy partnership following a meeting in Brussels between the European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, EU Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson and Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland.
An EU statement after the meeting said the two sides decided step up energy cooperation in order to ensure additional short-term and long-term gas supplies from Norway and to address the issue of high energy prices.
The statement noted that Norway is the biggest producer of oil and gas in Europe with a production contributing significantly to European energy security by delivering approximately آ¼ of EU-countries' gas consumption.
It also noted the importance of the European energy market as the main export market for the Norwegian gas and oil sector and future potential for cooperation on offshore renewable energy and hydrogen.
The two sided agreed that the importance of Norway's oil and gas production for European energy security has increased further after Russia's war against Ukraine.
Appreciating that the oil and gas producing companies in Norway are currently producing gas at very high capacity the statement saw a strong potential for increased sales to Europe in 2022, bringing close to 100 TWh of extra energy to the European market.
The EU statement recognized that Norway has significant remaining oil and gas resources and can, through continued exploration, new discoveries and field developments, continue to be a large supplier to Europe also in the longer term beyond 2030. (end)
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