Norway, which has become Europe’s biggest supplier of gas since the war in Ukraine, will maintain its supplies at current levels “for the next four to five years,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Haar Støre promised on Friday, AFP reports.

Jonas Haar Støre welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the offshore platform at the Troll field near Norway.

To compensate, at least in part, for the reduction in Russian supplies, Norway increased its gas production last year and currently covers 30 to 40 percent of the continent’s needs.

“Putin tried to blackmail the EU by depriving us of 80% of Russian gas supplies,” von der Leyen said.

Stoltenberg emphasized the importance of “ensuring the security of this type of infrastructure (such as the Troll field), which is extremely important to our economies, to our daily lives, and also to our security.”

Located approximately 65 km west of Bergen, the country’s second largest city, Troll is the largest gas field and one of the largest oil fields in Norway: it alone supplies the equivalent of 10% of Europe’s gas consumption.

Infrastructure is vulnerable, as demonstrated by the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

Drawing on the lessons of this troubling episode, NATO and the EU have established a working group to strengthen the protection of their critical infrastructures. His first meeting took place on Thursday.

Following a German-Norwegian request, the Atlantic Alliance also agreed to create a coordinating body for the protection of maritime infrastructure.

As a sign of increased vigilance, two Norwegian and German ships sailed from the platform on Friday, as well as a sea surveillance plane and a helicopter. (photo: Dreamstime)