Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the meeting on 28 June with the Norwegian Energy Minister and state-owned oil and gas company Equinor regarding the bilateral energy relationship, why an announcement was made ahead of the publication of the Hydrogen strategy of Equinor’s 1.8gw target for fossil fuel hydrogen.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy met with the Norwegian Energy Minister in Oslo to discuss ways to build back better from the Coronavirus pandemic and tackle climate change. They signed a Joint Statement reaffirming the importance of the bilateral energy relationship between the countries.

The Joint Statement marks a new phase of cross-border energy cooperation between the UK and Norway. The statement celebrated the completion last month of the construction of the North Sea link interconnector and announced that the UK and Norway are close to concluding a historic bilateral treaty on electricity interconnection. It also signalled both countries’ commitment to work together on future opportunities to support our economies’ transition to clean, green energy.

Both Norway and Equinor already play a valuable role in the UK’s energy supply. Equinor has major existing investments in wind and hydrocarbon projects on the UK Continental Shelf.

Equinor announced their latest plans for potential investment in low-carbon hydrogen production separately, following the Joint Statement. Equinor are one of several companies looking to invest in low carbon hydrogen projects in the UK.