The beginning of a new European “gas year” today, 1 October will also mark the 10th anniversary of the start to deliveries under Norway’s Troll gas sales agreements (TGSA).
Until Troll itself began producing gas in 1996, these contracts were covered by deliveries from Statoil’s Sleipner East development. Both fields are in the North Sea.
Three billion cubic metres were supplied in the first year under the TGSA, which are due to run until 2030. Troll itself can deliver gas for more than half a century.
This field accounted for more than 40 per cent of Norwegian deliveries in the 2002 gas year, which exceeded 45 billion cubic metres in total.
"For the 2003 gas year which starts today overall deliveries will be on about the same level as they were in the 2002 gas year," reports Trine Kloster, vice president for market and economic analyses in the Natural Gas business area.
The UK represents a key market for Statoil in the longer term, and the group starts delivering two billion cubic metres per annum to British Gas Trading on 1 October.
This buyer is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centrica, the UK’s biggest gas distributor with more than 50 per cent of the household market.
Statoil also contracted with British Gas Trading in 2002 to deliver five billion annual cubic metres of gas over a 10-year period from 1 October 2005.
This will make Centrica one of the group’s largest gas customers in coming years, alongside Ruhrgas in Germany, Gaz de France and Italy’s ENI.
In addition to starting deliveries to the UK distributor, Statoil is beginning to supply gas to Norway’s Grane field as well as to several small sales contracts – including with Denmark.
Statoil currently markets and sells both its own and the government’s gas, following the transition to company-based sales of Norwegian gas from 1 October last year.