Natural gas

In Europe, our most important markets for gas are Germany, the UK and France. Equinor also sells liquid natural gas (LNG) from the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea, transported by specialised ships to customers worldwide. The global LNG market is growing, and we are now supplying LNG cargoes to more than 20 countries.

In the USA, Equinor has shares and production in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in the Appalachian Basin. Gas is used for energy production, heating and industrial purposes. Through transport agreements to New York City and Toronto, residents can keep winter temperatures at bay with shale gas from the Marcellus field.

In Algeria, Equinor operates the In Salah gas field and the gas and condensate field In Amenas together with BP and Algeria's state-owned oil and gas company, Sonatrach. We are also the operator for the Hassi Mouina exploration licence, with Sonatrach as our partner.

Equinor has sales offices for gas in Stavanger, Brussels (Belgium), London (UK) and Stamford (USA). In addition to selling our own gas, we also sell the Norwegian government's gas volumes. With the government’s gas from State's Direct Financial Interest on the Norwegian continental shelf (SDFI) and our own gas combined, we market and sell about 70 per cent of the gas from the Norwegian continental shelf.

Previously, most of Equinor’s gas has been sold through long-term contracts to large European gas companies and suppliers. In the absence of a separate market price for gas, the sale price has often been indexed to the price of oil.

After the European transport network was opened for use on equal terms for everyone, we sell an increasing share of the gas through established markets for gas trading—so-called hubs—as well as directly to end-users.

The most common uses for gas are heating, cooking, energy production and industrial use. There is also a limited but growing use in transport.

Natural gas is especially beneficial within energy-intensive industries. In chemical industries, natural gas is not only useful as an energy carrier, but also as a necessary raw material to produce medicines, fertilisers and plastics.

Vehicles running on natural gas have 20 to 30 per cent lower CO₂ emissions than those running on petrol. Liquid gas is mainly used for heavy transport and shipping, while compressed gas is used in private cars, commercial vehicles and public transport. 

Natural gas is also useful in conjunction with renewable energy sources. Since renewable energy from solar and wind is intermittent, gas can provide a stable base load of electric power.

Equinor anticipates that the world's overall demand for natural gas will grow in the coming decades, mainly due to increasing demand for gas in Asia, and especially in China, as well as the positive climate effects of replacing coal with gas in energy production.