Norway Gas Giant Equinor Says Price Caps Won’t Solve Europe’s Supply Problem

(Bloomberg)

Norway’s biggest energy company said planned price caps won’t solve Europe’s underlying problem of not receiving enough natural gas this winter.“Any price cap is not really solving the fundamental problems,” Equinor Chief Executive Officer Anders Opedal said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Friday. “In fact, it can be counterproductive increasing demand while supply is not increasing.”

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The EU is mulling a dynamic price cap on wholesale gas in an attempt to tame the volatility that was unleashed by the sharp drop-off of Russian energy supplies. Norway, which has become Europe’s biggest supplier of natural gas has pushed back against such a measure, warning that it could have unforeseen consequences on investments that would increase flows.

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Maintaining investment levels and spending more on the energy transition is the way out of the crisis, Opedal said on Friday. In addition, a potential G-7 price cap on Russian oil could create quite a lot of disturbance in oil logistics going forward, bringing with it the risk that oil prices will rise.