The Norwegian Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the government and rejected an appeal over Gassled natural gas transportation tariff reduction. This is the third ruling in favour of the Norwegian State after the District Court of Oslo and the Appeals court.
Gassled's system is an upstream gas pipeline network located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) that links Norway to the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. The Norwegian government decided to cut gas transportation tariffs by 90% shortly after Solveig Gas, Silex Gas, Infragas and CapeOmega acquired a combined 48.2% stake in Gassled from ExxonMobil, Total, Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell in 2011 and 2012. The new shareholders thus decided to contest that decision in courts. The tariff change was meant to strengthen the incentives for the exploration and development of marginal fields but also significantly reduced Gassled's income (by an estimated US$2bn until 2028).