Norway’s Equinor does not have spare capacity to lift its oil and gas output amid supply shortfalls from Middle East producers, the state controlled company’s CEO said on Thursday.
“Our focus today is to make sure that we can be seen as a reliable provider of oil and gas to the markets we operate in and make sure we have the highest production possible, because it’s really needed these days,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Oslo.
The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and the latter’s retaliatory strikes across the Middle East have disrupted around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply along the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for Gulf state exports.
This has seen Brent crude oil surging above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022, while the benchmark European gas price has risen some 60% since the start of the conflict on February 28.
At the height of the 2022 energy crisis, Norway was able to ramp up exports almost 10% via a mix of higher production quotas and adjustments to maintenance schedules.
But the country has since produced at near maximum capacity and could not materially lift its output at this time, Opedal said.
Norway is Europe’s biggest supplier of natural gas and a key source for oil deliveries, with state-controlled Equinor the dominant producer.
Equinor has no production in the Middle East but has some employees in Dubai, who have been evacuated.
(Reporting by Nora Buli, editing by Terje Solsvik)