Norway exceeded Russia in the volume of gas supplies to Western Europe in the first quarter of 2015, as The Local writes. Thus, the European Union confirmed its intention to give up on the Russian gas, as the newspaper notes.

      The gas operator Gassco has exported 29.2 billion cubic meters of gas during the period from January to March of this year, while “Gazprom” provided only 20.29 billion cubic meters. It is noted that the downward trend in imports started in the last quarter of 2014, when Russia sold 19.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the region, and Norway - 29.5 billion cubic meters. At the year-end of last year, Russia was the largest supplier of gas to the EU, despite the fact that its share of deliveries decreased from 43 percent to 42 percent, while the volume of exports to the EU fell by more than 10 percent, as Reuters reports. The share of Norwegian gas deliveries to the EU countries has increased from 34 to 38 percent.