Rune Bjornson News

Statoil Criticizes British Gas Plan

Statoil said Britain risks losing out on gas imports if it does not change its pricing system for bringing natural gas onto the mainland from offshore fields. Rune Bjornson, managing director of Statoil (UK) Limited, said the recently introduced system of auctioning entry capacity, or access rights to the national pipeline system, produced very high, volatile prices. "We are not happy with the regime. We would like to have a predictable, stable regime which is more reflective of actual costs," Bjornson told Reuters in an interview. The erratic prices produced by the auction system will discourage producers like Statoil, one of Europe's main gas suppliers, from supplying gas into Britain where demand for natural gas is booming, he said.