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Norway will work with the European Union to seek a more stable gas market as soaring prices are not in the Nordic country's best interests, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Thursday.
Stoere was speaking after summoning gas companies to discuss ways to bring down the price of gas Norway sells to Europe, including the potential for long-term supply contracts.
"It is not in Norway's interest that we have these extraordinary gas price spikes," Stoere told reporters after the meeting. Norway is now Europe's largest supplier of piped gas.
Energy companies said they were willing to sign long-term contracts, but they had to know who the counterparties would be.
"At today's price level, it's too big a risk to take for most private players," Aker BP Chair Oeyvind Eriksen told reporters after the meeting. Aker BP is Norway's second-largest gas producer.
"So it's partly a question of pricing mechanisms and partly how states and companies can work together to solve this very serious situation," he said. (Reporting by Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis, writing by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)