Following an agreement with Poland, Norway’s state-owned oil and gas company Equinor has entered into another gas supply agreement, this time with a company in Switzerland.
Gaznat, which is dealing with supplying and transporting high-pressure natural gas in Western Switzerland, informed this week it had signed a major natural gas supply contract with the Norwegian supplier Equinor.
The five-year gas purchase agreement is part of Gaznat’s supply portfolio diversification policy and a major step towards securing new gas volumes to get through the coming winters with a high level of supply security, Gaznat said.
The company also emphasised that this partnership is of particular importance, as it strengthens a relationship with a reliable producer, in an unprecedented geopolitical and macroeconomic context. It also allows Gaznat to diversify its portfolio including various counterparties.
Gaznat will import its volumes into its service area to supply its customers in western Switzerland, including gas distribution companies that are also Gaznat shareholders.
A couple of weeks ago Equinor also entered into a long-term gas sales agreement with Poland’s PGNiG. The ten-year agreement is for a volume of around 2.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to be exported through the new Baltic Pipe, which connects the Norwegian gas export system to Poland via Denmark and facilitates the flow of Norwegian pipeline gas to Poland.
The agreement is part of Poland’s efforts to strengthen its energy security amid the current geopolitical crisis.
The Norwegian government has recently decided to heighten its emergency preparedness in relation to onshore and offshore installations on the shelf following reports about increased drone activity close to offshore installations as well as suspicions of sabotage in relation to the recent Nord Stream gas leaks in the Baltic Sea.