The Norwegian government is expecting a record income from its oil and gas industry in 2023, predicting a rise of 18 percent from this year's level and a fivefold increase over 2021 as production rises and prices keep skyrocketing.
In its draft budget for 2023, the Norwegian finance ministry expects oil and gas revenue next year to rise to a record 1.38 trillion NOK ($131 billion), up from 1.17 trillion NOK ($110 billion) in 2022 and 288 billion NOK ($27 billion) in 2021.
Norway, currently Europe's number one gas supplier and a major global crude producer, said it expected its oil and liquids production to rise 15 percent in 2023 amid new offshore extraction projects. Natural gas production in Norway is expected to rise 8 percent already in 2022.
The new oil and gas development projects will help Norway maintain a relatively high level of oil and gas production until 2030 and continue to be a stable energy supplier to Europe, the Nordic country's Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said.
Norway's windfall profits, which it reaps while filling the gap left behind by Russia, have been met with dismay in parts of Europe. Some EU countries, including Poland, have long called on Norway to reduce prices. Now, even Germany, the EU's biggest economy, is wagging its finger.
“Some countries, even friendly ones, are achieving astronomical prices in some cases,” Robert Habeck told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.
Over the course of the year, accusations of profiteering have rained over Norway both from abroad and internally, to the point of its own officials claiming they were having a hard time with such an unexpected oil and gas bonanza.
“There are times when it is not fun to make money, and this is one of them,” Terje Aasland claimed earlier this year.
Norway, which supplies around 25 percent of the gas consumed in the EU and the UK, admitted that soaring gas prices are not in its long-term best interest, yet firmly rejected calls for a price cap, arguing that this would not help Europe secure more energy.
Meanwhile, European gas prices have roughly tripled in 2022, following Europe's decision to cut Russian supplies as part of a sanctions campaign meant as “punishment” for its special operation in Ukraine. The price rush has exacerbated Europe's cost-of-living crisis, bolsters inflation around the continent and spurs drastic saving and relief measures across the EU.
At the same time, gas deliveries from Russia are bound to remain limited, given that the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore pipelines in the Baltic Sea were badly damaged by explosions and rendered inoperative last week in what several EU countries suspected to be sabotage and what Moscow called an “act of international terrorism.”