Norway Confirms Intention to Increase Competition in Energy Markets

Norway’s officials confirmed their intention to go back to a period of higher competition, creating incentives for other big players to join the declining local oil and gas industry.

“Statoil is very important for the Norwegian shelf, has been and will be. But we remember when we had Hydro and Statoil challenging each other. That created some positive synergies,” Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien told Bloomberg on Wednesday. 

Statoil will report its earnings on Friday.

Earlier this month, Statoil, Petoro and GdFS decided to terminate the Kristin gas export project (KGEP) in the Norwegian Sea, in light of unsustainable economics due to increased investments costs and increased risk to volume availability. The $324 million KGEP project was a 30-kilometre project connecting the Kristin field to Polarled.

The Norwegian government underlined several times that it is preparing the transition to an economy less reliant on hydrocarbon exports.

Erna Solberg’s won the elections expressing her intention to sell public stake in Statoil and promote changes in the energy market. Experts foresee that the country will pave the way to more competition in the national gas market. This would be part of a broader change of direction in national energy policies.