Natural gas

Natural gas is cleaner than oil or coal and is a resource for a purer and greener world. By increasing the amount of natural gas that is being used, society will have taken a step in the direction of where renewable sources of energy will take over. Norway is the fourth largest exporter of natural gas in the world. 

Research teams at NTNU and SINTEF have made important contributions that have helped to make natural gas a viable commercial product. This research has focused on Norwegian gas resources and has covered field development, transport and the processing required for commercial products. Research on environment friendly utilization of natural gas has become increasingly important as Norway is working to meet its obligations as a signatory of the Kyoto protocol. 

The Gas Technology Centre at NTNU and SINTEF will pay a central role in the development of this resource and help Norway towards optimizing its rates of recovery from its gas reserves in the North Sea.

In 2002, Norway exported natural gas to the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland. This totalled 64.2 billion Sm³ which is a 27 per cent increase (about 13.7 billion Sm³) in gas exports compared to the year before. 

The LNG plant on Melkøya (Illustration) near Hammerfest in the far north of Norway will start to come online in 2006. This will have a capacity of 4.3 MT/yr LNG