Norway would be open to the possibility of a long-term gas agreement and price cap with European partners to help ease the energy crisis, the Financial Times reports.

“I fully understand that Europe now has a profound debate about how energy markets work, how they can secure more affordable prices for citizens, families, industries, and how this shortfall of gas after Putin’s aggression can be handled,” Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, told the newspaper on Wednesday.

“Norway is not closing doors to any such discussion,” he added.

However, Støre did say that the EU should be wary of implementing measures which could threaten the security of power supplies, according to the report in the Financial Times.

The country has worked to maximise gas production in light of the invasion of Ukraine earrlier this year. So far, the country has increased gas supplies to Europe by around 10 percent.

Norway was working to be recognised as a “predictable and long-term” partner, FT’s report said. Norway is currently Europe’s second-largest supplier of energy to Europe.

European Union energy ministers are due to meet on Friday to discuss the implementation of caps on Russian natural gas prices, according to a report by Reuters.

Price caps on gas are seen as a potential measure the EU could implement to try and curb soaring energy prices.
Støre told Norwegian newswire NTB on Wednesday that the country wouldn’t close the door to any proposals suggested by the EU.

“This work is now ongoing, and the concrete content of the proposals is not yet known. That is why I have said that at the present time, we cannot close the door to any of the solutions the EU is discussing until we see the whole and the concrete content of the proposals,” he said.