“The high gas prices are not in our interest”

Paris Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has rejected criticism of his country’s additional billions in profits from the energy crisis. “It is not in our interest to have these high and volatile gas prices,” he said in an interview with Handelsblatt and three other European newspapers. It is not Norway that sets the prices on the European market: “It is the result of the gas shortage and a result of Putin’s war.”

Støre warned that measures such as a gas price cap could end up being “counterproductive” for supply. The Norwegian head of government advocated long-term supply contracts as a means of lowering prices.

“The most important contribution Norway can make to Europe is to produce and export gas,” he said. The country has been able to increase its deliveries to the EU by eight to ten percent, which corresponds to around 100 terawatt hours more. “Without this increase, prices in the European market would have increased even more.”