Norwegian gas exports in November hit highest level since January

With the end of traditional autumn maintenance and the start of the heating season, Norwegian natural gas exports began to recover. Norwegian gas deliveries reached their highest level since the end of January in November, helping keep gas storage facilities across the EU almost completely full into early December. Deliveries are expected to remain strong over the coming weeks, when almost no maintenance is planned.

Following last year's sharp drop in natural gas deliveries from Russia, Norway became the largest gas supplier to the European market. According to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, Norway exported a total of 9.85 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas through pipelines to the United Kingdom and continental European countries in November.

Norwegian exports thus rose by 8% compared with October, reaching their highest level since January this year. Since the beginning of the year, Norway has exported a total of 94.1 billion cubic metres through pipelines. This is around a tenth less than in the same period last year.

This year's exports were curbed primarily by extensive maintenance and extended outages during the summer and autumn, as well as a number of unplanned outages. According to S&P Global, the increased maintenance this year was due to a backlog from previous years. In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the course of outages, while last year efforts to maximize exports during the peak of the energy crisis did so.

Norwegian gas has been flowing directly to Denmark and Poland for a year

In previous years, Norway traditionally exported gas through pipelines to the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Since last November, however, Norwegian gas has also flowed through the Baltic Pipe, which connected infrastructure in the North Sea with the gas systems of Denmark and Poland.

This year, 744 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas flowed into the Nybro terminal, which connects Norwegian gas infrastructure with Denmark. Since the end of last year, Norway has therefore slightly reduced gas deliveries to other countries, particularly France.