Equinor looks at its role in expanding Germany's gas capacity

A senior executive at Equinor said that the Norwegian energy company is considering its options to participate in a German gas-fired plant tender, but needs more information before taking a decision.

Germany will tender 8 gigawatts of new gas-fired plant capacity in the coming year. A further 2 GW will be offered by 2026 or 2027, to strike a balanced between decarbonisation while supporting intermittent renewables.

Helge Haigane, Equinor's head of power business, said: "We are in discussions with actors that will be most definitely in the picture. Then we have to determine if we can play a part in this."

He added that the involvement of any company was also dependent on economics. Many details about the tenders were still not clear.

Haugane explained that, "in general, we entered power plants with partners, as we did in Britain, for example."

Equinor has launched its power unit in this year. It combines the renewable energy activities and the power generation of the group into a single unit.

The company owns solar power plants, onshore and off-shore wind farms, batteries, and gas-fired stations. Its new unit will invest in a variety of technologies.

Equinor, the biggest gas producer in Norway, supplies natural gas to Germany via direct pipeline connections and new German LNG import terminals.

Haugane stated that Equinor may consider directly supplying its gas to other projects while the gas for the power plants is purchased on the open markets. (Reporting and editing by Terje Solsvik, Nora Buli)

(source: Reuters)