Hammerfest outage helps sink Norwegian exports

The new Gas Year gets off to a torrid start even as oil continues its year-on-year increase streak

Norway’s gas producers had been feeling slightly more positive after cancelled US LNG cargoes had both boosted ­European prices and appetite for their pipeline exports in the third quarter. But figures released by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) for the first month of the new October 2020-September 2021 Gas Year (GY20-21) served as a salutary reminder that volumes can still ­undershoot. Equinor, Norway’s largest gas producer, hailed a “strong contribution from European gas sales and trading” in its Q3 results even while its average realised price to the continent, at $2.72/mn Btu, was still down by 48pc year-on-year. The firm “took the opportunity to increase our Norwegian continen