Gas, fish bonanza drives Norway’s trade surplus to record

Record revenue from natural gas and fish exports helped Norway to its highest ever trade surplus last month.

The value of natural gas exports increased nearly sevenfold in September from a year earlier to 48.7 billion kroner ($5.8 billion), “by far the highest export value in a single month,” Statistics Norway said in a statement on Friday. Fish exports also rose to a record 11.5 billion kroner.

Shipment of goods from western Europe’s largest oil and gas exporter has set records for three straight months due to soaring prices for fossil fuels and aluminum. It is now getting an additional boost from fish sales.

Export of whole fresh salmon jumped more than 30% from last September to another record, as demand surges with the reopening of restaurants, the statistics agency said. An earlier than usual catch of mackerel for the season, which helped the country’s gross domestic product growth beat expectations in August, also boosted exports.

Norway was the second biggest supplier of natural gas to the European Union last year behind Russia, with a share of 20% versus Russia’s 43%.