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The more emitters have to pay for EU carbon permits to cover each tonne of C02 they produce, the greater the incentive to invest in low carbon technologies and switch to less polluting fuels. Still, rising carbon prices are a cause of political tensions in the EU and breaching the 100 euro threshold is likely to reignite debates over prices. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last year called for a CO2 price cap to help tackle soaring inflation. Other EU countries view a robust carbon price as vital to meeting climate goals. Years of weak prices followed until CO2 prices began to recover in 2018 when the EU agreed to remove surplus permits from the market.

☆ Equinor raises energy trading forecast on volatility, flexibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nora Buli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) raised its energy trading division's outlook on Wednesday, saying it expects the business to profit from a more flexible asset portfolio and market volatility. Equinor earlier posted record overall profits for 2022, driven by soaring gas prices, sending its shares up 7%. It lifted the adjusted quarterly earnings guidance for its Marketing, Midstream and Processing (MMP) segment to $400 million-$800 million, from $250 million-$500 million previously. Equinor also benefits from having a flexible oil and gas production portfolio and different options for where and when to send its production, she added. Last year's volatility was extreme and Equinor did not expect to see the same geographical spreads, Rummelhoff said.

With net profit for the year of $28.7 billion, up from $8.6 billion a year earlier, Equinor joined global oil and gas majors such as ExxonMobil (XOM.N), Shell (SHEL.L) and BP (BP.L) in reporting record returns for 2022. Majority state-owned Equinor (EQNR.OL) became Europe's largest supplier of natural gas last year as Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) cut deliveries over the West's support for Ukraine, sending European gas prices to all-time highs. But gas prices have tumbled in 2023 and Equinor's Oslo-listed stocks have fallen 9% year-to-date, underperforming a 3.3% rise in European petroleum stocks (.SXEP). The board reaffirmed a regular share buyback plan of $1.2 billion per year and said it would make an extraordinary buy back in 2023 of $4.8 billion, for a total of $6 billion. Equinor's previous adjusted earnings record was $36.2 billion in 2008, when North Sea oil prices hit record highs.

Companies could also move their gas trading off energy exchanges, where the EU price cap will apply, and instead conduct private transactions. The EU cap will not initially cover these "over-the-counter" (OTC) trades, although the bloc will review next year if they should be included. The EU price cap applies to EU hubs, but not those outside the bloc, such as Britain's National Balancing Point (NBP) trading hub. Front-month TTF prices met the price level required to trigger the EU cap on about 40 days this year. EU gas demand dropped by 20% in August-November this year, compared with the five-year average for the same period, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

☆ Norway's November oil and gas output lag forecast
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

OSLO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Norway's crude oil and gas output fell in November from the previous month, lagging official forecasts, preliminary data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) showed on Tuesday. Crude oil output fell to 1.74 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, 8.7% below a forecast of 1.91 million bpd and down from 1.75 million bpd in October, the NPD said. Natural gas production in November averaged 346.4 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, 1.8% below a forecast of 352.8 mcm per day and down from 349.4 mcm per day in October. Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik and Nora BuliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Europe's gas market faces risks from EU price cap, Equinor says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Nora Buli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SummarySummary Companies Gas market liquidity at risk from price cap plansPrice cap will not hamper Equinor deliveries to EuropeBilateral delivery contracts volume has doubledOSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A European Commission plan for a gas price cap risks reducing liquidity in Europe's gas market, posing a threat to how it functions, head of trading at Norwegian oil company Equinor told Reuters, but its own gas deliveries will not be affected. For Equinor, the biggest concern is what happens to the liquidity in the gas market, Helge Haugane, Equinor's head of gas and power trading, said in an interview. "I think the price cap is the one that we need to pay attention to," Haugane said. These contracts are typically indexed to various gas price indices and cover delivery terms of up to 10 years, he added. Equinor is also open to discuss longer term fixed price contracts, but so far there has been limited interest from buyers, he added.

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Russia's January-November oil and gas condensate rose 2.2% from a year earlier to 488 million tonnes, the Interfax news agency said on Tuesday, citing Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. The Group of Seven nations, Australia and the 27 EU states have also introduced a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil. Russia's oil and gas condensate output from January to November averaged 10.91 million barrels per day, according to Reuters calculations. Company sources told Reuters that Russian oil output could fall by 500,000 to 1 million barrels per day early in 2023 after the EU ban. The Kommersant daily citing sources on Tuesday reported Russia's November output averaged 1.486 million tonnes (10.89 million barrels) per day, up 2% from October.

[1/2] Offshore oil and gas platform supply vessels (PSVs) are docked at a pier in Stavanger, Norway, August 10, 2021. The decision to postpone the so-called 26th licensing round was part of the minority government's budget deal with the opposition Socialist Left Party (SV), Terje Aasland said in an interview. The deal extends an agreement the minority cabinet and SV made last year, when the government won elections, which delayed the 26th licensing round by a year. Aasland said there was "no drama" in the decision as authorities still issue licences to oil companies in a parallel licensing around called the APA round, in so-called mature areas that are already open to oil companies. The 26th licensing round grants the right to oil companies to explore and produce oil and gas in areas not explored previously.

OSLO, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Norway will put its military on a raised level of alert from Tuesday as it sharpens security in response to the war in Ukraine, the Nordic country's prime minister said on Monday. Norway is now the biggest exporter of natural gas to the European Union, accounting for around a quarter of all EU imports after a drop in Russian flows. "This is the most severe security situation in several decades," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference. Norway first deployed its military to guard offshore platforms and onshore facilities after leaks on the Nord Stream pipeline on Sept. 26 and has received support from the British, French and German navies. Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Nora Buli, Philippa Fletcher and John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Equinor's previous earnings record amounted to a profit before tax of $18 billion and was set in the first quarter. Equinor has said it sells most of its gas output on a day-ahead or month-ahead price basis. "Of course, the (gas) prices in Europe are very high. The European Union has said it plans to coordinate some of its gas purchases in the hope of bringing down prices. "We will cooperate with those buying institutions planned in the EU and negotiate gas prices in the future," Opedal said.

☆ Centrica reopens UK's Rough gas storage site in time for winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Nora Buli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L) has reopened its Rough gas storage site off England's east coast at about 20% of its previous capacity, enough to heat 1 million homes for 100 days this winter, the company said on Friday. Before it was closed, Rough represented more than 70% of UK storage and supplied 10% of peak winter demand. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing concerns over gas supplies this winter, Centrica upgraded the facility and started refilling the site in early autumn. Even at 20% of previous capacity, Rough is the UK's largest gas storage site and adds 50% to the UK's gas storage capacity, though this lags behind European countries, Centrica said. The long-term aim is to turn the Rough gas field into the largest long-range energy storage facility in Europe, capable of storing both natural gas and hydrogen, Centrica said.

☆ Norway police arrest Russian for flying drone amid heightened security
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OSLO, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Norway police arrested a Russian man at the airport in the arctic town of Tromsoe and charged him with flying a drone, they said on Saturday, marking the second such arrest in one week. Police seized a large amount of photographic gear, including a drone and several memory cards, during Friday's arrest of the 51-year-old, who had admitted to flying a drone in Norway, police said. Sanctions laws forbid Russian companies or citizens from operating aircraft in Norway. It marks the second arrest in one week of a Russian citizen for flying drones in Norway, with another man detained for an initial two week-period following an arrest at the Storskog border crossing. Norway is now Europe's largest gas supplier after a sharp reduction in flows from Russia.

OSLO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Norwegian police on Thursday responded to a threat made by telephone against the Nyhamna gas processing plant, one of Europe's largest energy export facilities, and later said the incident had been resolved, without giving details. "It was a threat made by telephone," Odd Joergen Nilssen, the mayor of Aukra municipality, where the plant is located, told Reuters, without elaborating. "The situation at (the) Ormen Lange (plant) is cleared. The Nyhamna plant processes natural gas from the offshore Ormen Lange field, operated by Shell, and the Aasta Hansteen field, operated by Equinor. In recent years, gas produced from Ormen Lange has accounted for up to 20% of Britain's gas consumption, according to Shell.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey could act as a gas hub, having already suggested on Wednesday that Russia could reroute supplies intended for the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea, which were damaged last month. Concerns over winter supplies were heightened as workers at EDF's Bugey nuclear plant in eastern France resumed a strike over wages on Thursday, the latest in a series of stoppages to hit the French industry. Norway has become an increasingly important source of gas for the EU and Britain after Russia curtailed supplies. At a meeting in Kazakhstan, President Putin said that increased cooperation on supplies with Turkey , which is not a member of the EU, could also help to regulate prices.

☆ Norway to deploy military to protect its oil and gas installations
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Nora Buli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

OSLO, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Norway will deploy its military to protect its oil and gas installations against possible sabotage after several countries said two Russian pipelines to Europe spewing gas into the Baltic had been attacked, the prime minister said on Wednesday. Norway is now Europe's largest gas supplier and a leading global oil supplier. It has over 90 offshore oil and gas fields, most of which are connected to a network of gas pipelines stretching some 9,000 km (5,590 miles). Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"The military will be more visible at Norwegian oil and gas installations," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference. At sea, the Navy would be deployed to protect offshore installations, while on land, police could increase presence at facilities, he said.

☆ Factbox: Europe's efforts to shield households from soaring energy costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-02 | by ( Susanna Twidale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Without the measure, average home energy bills were tipped to reach over 3,500 pounds a year in October with forecasts of much higher bills to come. CZECH REPUBLICThe Czech government has agreed to cap electricity and gas prices next year to shield households from soaring prices. ITALYItaly approved an aid package worth some 14 billion euros ($14 billion) in September to shield firms and families from surging energy costs. The measures came on top of some 52 billion euros already budgeted since January to soften the energy crisis in Italy. NORWAYNorway has been subsidising household electricity bills since December and now covers 80% of the portion of power bills above a certain rate.

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