Norway, Western Europe's biggest natural gas exporter, is producing at full capacity and cannot fill a supply gap in central Europe caused by Russia's halt of deliveries to Ukraine, officials and producers said on Monday.
Russia cut its neighbour's gas supplies on Sunday after Kiev refused Moscow's demand for a four-fold price rise. The halt quickly affected countries in central Europe as pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe cross Ukraine.
The Norwegian pipeline system is delivering near record-high volumes around 270 million cubic metres per day to the continent and the UK, and a slight excess in transport capacity cannot be filled as no more output is available, energy officials said.
"Deliveries of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf are now all-time high," Oil and Energy minister Odd Roger Enoksen told Norwegian television, according to a spokeswoman.
"The capacity of the upstream production and transportation system is fully utilised."
Companies separately confirmed that they were exporting at full capacity to meet high demand for electricity for heating.
"There isn't any slack in our system during winter time," said Ola Morten Aanestad, spokesman for Norway's biggest gas producer Statoil.
"Our production is running at full capacity," Aanestad said. "We are already sending all the gas we have to customers in Europe and we are tied by long-term contracts."
At the No 2 producer, Norsk Hydro, spokeswoman Inger Sethov said: "We are already producing at maximum capacity, and we are doing everything we can to contribute to gas supply security to Europe in the short and long term."
Enoksen said he hoped the "short-term difficulties" stemming from the Russian-Ukrainian dispute would "not have any negative impact on the standing of natural gas" which he said remained a secure and "environmentally friendly" energy source for Europe.