Dec 4, 2006, 14:52 GMT
Berlin - Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Monday his country was intent on increasing natural gas exports to Germany and the European Union.
Norway already provides one-third of Germany's gas and talks are taking place between the country's Statoil state gas producer and energy companies in Germany and Europe to boost gas deliveries, said Stoltenberg after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel said Norwegian energy would continue to be vital for the German economy and especially praised what she termed 'the reliability of Norwegian firms.'
Germany's other big gas supplier is Russia which supplies 36 per cent of German needs. But there are concerns over the reliability of deliveries after Russian state energy giant Gazprom briefly cut off of gas to Ukraine last January due to a pricing dispute.
Norway's Statoil operates the huge Troll offshore gas field in the North Sea which is Europe's largest producing gas field with reserves of about 979 billion standard cubic metres (scm), according to the company.
Among proposals to boost gas production are the building of new pipelines from the field to Europe.
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