This is the first major gas agreement since the Gas Negotiating Committee (GFU) was preliminarily disbanded on 1 June. The GFU was previously responsible for marketing gas from Norway's offshore fields. It is also the first contract for gas from Statoil to the UK since the Frigg field agreements of 1977, when the North Sea field started production.
"Statoil is very satisfied with this contract," says Rune Bjørnson, managing director of Statoil UK.
"The UK gas market is attractive for us because of its size, the proximity to Statoil's reserves and the market growth potential," says Mr Bjørnson. "This contract demonstrates our ambition to respond to increasing UK demand with secure supplies of gas."
Statoil has been represented in the UK gas market since the Frigg field opened. For the past 10 years, the group has also been an active gas marketer and trader in the UK.
Under this contract, the gas will be delivered at the National Balancing Point (NBP). Since 1996, the NBP has functioned as an imaginary point of sale in the UK gas transport system, where buyers and sellers of gas can meet and trade using standard agreements.
The new Norsk Hydro-operated Vesterled trunkline, which is due to open 1 October, is one of several possible transport routes for the gas deliveries.
Vesterled will connect the existing Frigg pipeline with the Heimdal platform, thereby opening for gas deliveries from the Norwegian continental shelf to the UK.
