Norway's Equinor Agrees With Centrica to Deliver Additional Gas to UK -- Update

By Dominic Chopping and Jaime Llinares Taboada

Norwegian energy group Equinor ASA said Thursday that it has signed an agreement with British energy supplier Centrica PLC to deliver additional gas supplies to the U.K. over the next three winters.

The new supply agreement adds around 1 billion cubic meters a year to Equinor's existing, bilateral contract with Centrica and brings the total volume under the contract to more than 10 BCM a year, it said. Centrica owns the U.K.'s largest power-and-gas retailer, British Gas.

Equinor typically supplies 20-22 BCM of natural gas to the U.K. every year, which covers more than 25% of the country's gas demand, it said.

This deal between the U.K. and Norway comes as Russia's Gazprom PJSC is lowering flows into Europe via the key Nord Stream pipeline due to maintenance delays, and shutting sales to large buyers in Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria. The European Union imported 155 BCM of gas from Russia in 2021, 40% of its total consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.

"With Russia's criminal invasion of Ukraine, it is more important than ever that we source more of the gas we need domestically, but also from safe and reliable import partners while we transition. We cannot, and will not, turn off the taps overnight," the U.K.'s Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said.

"At a time when energy security is paramount, I'm pleased that we are able to do our bit to ease the pressure and provide some more certainty ahead of what may be a difficult winter," Centrica's Chief Executive Chris O'Shea said.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]; Jaime Llinares at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 16, 2022 07:03 ET (11:03 GMT)

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