Statoil sat a new gas sales record to the UK market with 73 million cubic metres on Thursday 1 March, via the Langeled and Vesterled pipelines.
"The record delivery is due to Langeled's increased export capacity," says Tor Martin Anfinnsen, Statoil's senior vice president for the trading and operations business cluster in Natural Gas.
"The record sale demonstrates that the Langeled pipeline has become an integrated part of Statoil's gas machine," he says.
"The aim of Langeled was to strengthen Statoil's position in the British gas market. We presently sell large amounts of gas with good profitability to UK customers."
The southern part of Langeled stretches from the Easington terminal on the UK's east coast to the Sleipner area of the North Sea. Gas exports from Troll and Sleipner via Langeled started in October 2006. This marked a strategic milestone for Statoil. The northern leg of Langeled, which runs from the Ormen Lange field in the Norwegian Sea via Nyhamna near Trondheim to Sleipner, opens later this year.
"The UK is a very important market for Statoil," says Mr Anfinnsen. "It is Europe's biggest gas market and lies close to our core area for gas production. We see significant growth opportunities here."
Europe's energy demand is expected to increase by 50% up to 2030. Of all fossil fuels, demand for natural gas is increasing the most.