by Nora Buli
Troll Platform, NORTH SEA, March 17 (Reuters) – NATO’s Secretary General and the President of the European Commission traveled to the North Sea in Norway on Friday to discuss the security of gas supplies and infrastructure.
Jens Stoltenberg and Ursula von der Leyen visited the Troll A platform, which operates on Norway’s largest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the European Union.
The two officials discussed protecting Europe’s gas supply and infrastructure with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Equinor CEO Anders Opedal.
The security of Norwegian oil installations has been tightened after the explosions on Nord Stream gas pipelines on September 26 in the Baltic Sea.
Norway’s energy infrastructure is vital, but vulnerable due to its size, as it includes thousands of kilometers of gas pipelines as well as internet and power cables, Jens Stoltenberg told reporters aboard the Troll A.
“We obviously cannot protect every meter of this infrastructure at all times,” he said.
“But what we are doing is we have intensified … the exchange of intelligence information. We have strengthened our presence by increasing our military capabilities.”
“The goal now is to multiply the exercises and to be able to react quickly if something happens,” added Jens Stoltenberg.
NATO and the EU created an intervention force in January to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure in response to the Nord Stream explosions. Its first meeting was on Thursday, Ursula von der Leyen said Friday.
Troll alone covered 11.3% of EU gas consumption last year, according to operator Equinor. The field accounts for a third of Norway’s daily gas exports to Europe.
Gas from Troll is piped to a processing plant on the west coast of Norway, before being piped again to the European Union and Britain.
(Report Nora Buli, written by Gwladys Fouche; Version Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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