Report: Norway could agree to cap EU prices for gas

MOSCOW, Sep 7 (PRIME) -- Norway is open to agreeing to a voluntary price cap for natural gas in the E.U., Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in an interview to the Financial Times business daily published on Wednesday.

“I am not closing the door to any ideas that can take Europe forward. It’s in Norway’s deep interest that we reduce instability, that we increase reliability for our allies and partners,” he said, when asked whether Norway could agree to a voluntary price cap.

Norway has increased gas supplies to Europe by 10% this year, and is ready to discuss potential long-term agreement with the European partners. At the same time, the E.U. is getting gas from new suppliers in the U.S. and the Middle East and should not make hasty decisions that could jeopardize that, he told the Financial Times.

Earlier in the day, newswire Politico reported that Germany was pushing back against the idea of capping the price for Russian gas. A spokesperson for the German Economy Ministry told the newswire that the country was skeptical toward the price cap, but it was also ready for talks in the European framework.

Georgy Zinovyev, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s first department of Asia, told PRIME separately that the U.S. want to drag South Korea into its cartel agreement on capping the Russian oil price, but Seoul’s joining the initiative would create serious negative consequences. Moscow hopes that South Korea would not create unnecessary problems for itself, he said.

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