High gas prices brought Norway a record trade surplus last year. The Scandinavian country had total exports worth around 2.6 trillion Norwegian kroner (243 billion euros) in 2022, which corresponded to an increase of a whopping 87.2 percent over the previous year. This was announced by the Norwegian statistical authority SSB on Monday. Goods worth a good 1.0 trillion crowns were imported. This gives Norway a trade surplus of almost 1.6 trillion crowns (147 billion euros) – almost three times the surplus in 2021. The statisticians identified the export of natural gas as the main reason for the enormous plus. This has almost tripled year-on-year to a value of 1.36 billion crowns, making up more than half of the total export value in 2022. According to this, 117.7 billion standard cubic meters of gaseous natural gas were exported in 2021, 3.3 percent more than in 2021. This corresponded to the second highest export volume after the record year 2017. At the same time, the non-EU country exported crude oil worth almost 549 billion crowns, 54 8 percent more than in 2021. The oil export volume fell by 3 percent. Energy prices had skyrocketed in 2022, mainly because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Reduced access to Russian gas is the main reason for the price increase, explained SSB foreign trade statistician Therese Vestre.
Gas exports – record year for Norway – economy
