111 / 288
Ten-Year Network Development Plan 2017 Main Report |
111
Image courtesy of Gassco
Reserves
Norway has been supplying natural gas to Europe for more than 40 years since
production began in the early 1970s. Since then, the development of new fields has
enabled the continuous increase of gas volumes exported by Norway. However for
the past decade the sold and delivered volumes have increased faster than new
discoveries have progressed (Reserves and contingent resources
1)
). Roughly half of
the reserves still remain but the overall production could fall below current levels
during the 20-year time horizon of this report.
0
1,250
2,500
3,750
5,000
bcm
1973
1975
1977
1979
1983
1985
1987
1989
1993
1995
1997
1999
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2015
2013
Sold and delivered
Reserves
Contingent resources
Figure 3.20:
Evolution of Norwegian gas reserves 1973–2015
(Source: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate)
One of the main challenges for Norway is to decide about the most beneficial way to
export the future production. It is not decided yet whether to expand the offshore
network to connect new fields to the existing grid and export this production to
Europe or to export LNG globally. However, for this solution to materialise, strong sig-
nals from European market are required.
1) Contingent resources mean the estimated recoverable volumes from known accumulations that have been proven
through drilling but which do not yet fulfil the requirements for reserves.