Equinor, the Norwegian energy company, will join the EU’s gas procurement programme to facilitate the signing of more long-term contracts between suppliers and customers, as stated by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday.

The aim of the joint gas procurement initiative, which involves EU member countries and Ukraine, is to enhance energy supply security.

The first contracts are expected to be finalised this summer.

During her visit to a North Sea gas platform, the EU Chief expressed her satisfaction with Equinor’s decision to join the scheme as a supplier.

Ursula von der Leyen said: “Norway is an incredibly precious partner friend to the European Union, mainly in the last twelve months, while we saw the atrocious war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine, Putin tried to blackmail the European Union by cutting us off a Russian gas supply 80%, an equivalent of 100 billion cubic metres of gas and in that time we needed a friend to step up and that’s what Norway did.

“Norway increased its production and helped us at a critical time, it increased the production from 78 billion cubic metres of gas to 90 billion cubic metres and this really helped us through the winter.”