Natural Gas: New Dimensions of Norwegian Foreign Policy

The author analyses the foreign policy aspects of Norwegian natural gas policy in a regional European perspective. The focus is on the development of a regional West European pipeline gas supply system as part of a more wide-ranging economic and political cooperation of a long-term character. Because the main sources of such a gas supply system are Norway, the Soviet Union, and Algeria, and because huge pipelines from these countries to Western Europe constitute the concrete basis of the system, there are important political considerations involved. Especially the prospect of bringing gas by pipeline through Sweden to the Continent brings the interface of EastWest, Nordic, and West European dimensions into focus. Finally, possibilities for Norwegian-Soviet energy cooperation are discussed.