Norway
The North Sea holds the majority of Norways natural gas reserves, but there are also significant quantities in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. Norway is the eighth-largest natural gas producer in the world, producing 2.59 Tcf in 2003. However, because of the countrys low domestic consumption, Norway was the worlds third-largest net exporter of natural gas in 2003, behind Russia and Canada.
A small group of fields account for the bulk of Norways total natural gas production. The single largest field is Troll, which produced 930 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2004 and represents about one-third of Norways total natural gas production. Other important fields include Sleipner Ost (450 Bcf), Asgard (360 Bcf), and Oseberg (250 Bcf). These four fields compose over 70 percent of Norways total gas production.
Despite the maturation of its major natural gas fields in the North Sea, Norway has been able to sustain annual increases in total natural gas production by incorporating new fields. In October 2004, the Kvitebjorn field came onstream with an expected production level of 710 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d). Statoil expects to bring the Halten Bank West project onstream in October 2005, which includes estimated reserves of 1.2 Tcf spread among five fields (Kristin, Lavrans, Erlend, Morvin, and Ragnfrid). Over the long term, Norway is counting on non-North Sea projects to provide significant natural gas production, such as Ormen Lange (Norwegian Sea) and Snohvit (Barents Sea).

United Kingdom
Most UK natural gas reserves occur in three distinct areas: 1) associated fields in the UKCS; 2) non-associated fields in the Southern Gas Basin, located adjacent to the Dutch sector of the North Sea; and 3) non-associated fields in the Irish Sea. Since 1997, the UK has been a net exporter of natural gas. However, as is the case with the countrys oil reserves, most natural gas fields have already reached a high degree of maturity, and the UK government estimates that the country will again become a net importer of natural gas by the end of the decade. Indicative of this trend, the operators of the Interconnector natural gas pipeline linking the UK and Belgium announced in August 2005 that they would change the flow of the system, exporting gas from the Continent to the UK, rather than importing gas from the UK. In addition, the UK received in 2005 its first shipment of LNG in three decades.
The UK produced 3.6 Tcf of natural gas in 2003, a decrease from the peak of 3.8 Tcf in 2000. The country is the fourth-largest producer of natural gas in the world, behind Russia, the United States, and Canada. The largest concentration of natural gas production in the UK is the Shearwater-Elgin area of the Southern Gas Basin. The area contains five non-associated gas fields, Elgin (Total), Franklin (Total), Halley (Talisman), Scoter (Shell), and Shearwater (Shell). The UK also produces signifigant amounts of associated natural gas from its oil fields in the UKCS. Like the oil industry, smaller independents have been able to acquire some maturing assets from larger operators, who find it difficult to profitably operate these older, declining fields.

Denmark
Danish natural gas production has steadily increased over the last three decades, reaching 280 Bcf in 2003. More than a quarter of the countrys production is re-injected to boost oil production, according to the Danish Energy Authority (DEA).
The Netherlands
In 2003, natural gas production in the Netherlands was 2.6 Tcf. Natural gas production in the country has declined, not due to natural factors, but rather government policy. The Netherlands has passed the Natural Gas Law, which caps natural gas production at 2.68 Tcf per year between 2003-2007, with this ceiling dropping to 2.47 Tcf between 2008-2013. The government made this policy decision to cut back production in order to maintain reserves for future use. According to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dutch natural gas production will continue to remain steady or slightly decline through 2014.
The onshore Groningen field, located in the north-east of the country, accounts for about one-half of total Dutch natural gas production, with remaining production spread across small fields both onshore and in the North Sea. The largest offshore field is K15. Nederlandse Aarodolie Maatschappij (NAM), a consortium of ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, operates both K15 and the Groningen field.
Germany
Germany produced 785 Bcf of natural gas in 2003. Nearly all of Germanys natural gas production is located onshore. The country does have one offshore natural gas field, A6-B4, located in the German sector of North Sea, which began production in 2000. The largest natural gas producer in Germany is BEB, a consortium of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, which controls half of the countrys domestic natural gas production.

Norway has a small LNG terminal located in Tjeldbergodden, with a capacity of only 12,000 tonnes per year (t/y). In 2004, all output from this plant went to Sweden, according to Statistics Norway. On a much larger scale, Statoil plans to construct an LNG export terminal at Melkoya, near Hammerfest. The Melkoya facility, which will be the first, large-scale LNG export terminal in Europe, will consist of an anchored barge with pipeline connections to the Snohvit project. Statoil plans to have the the project online by the end of 2006, with an initial capacity of 4.1 million t/y (202 Bcf of natural gas) and a potential expansion to 8.2 million t/y. Most of the output from the Melkoya facility has already been contracted to El Paso for delivery to the United States, with smaller amounts going to Iberdrola in Spain.
The UK has a single LNG import terminal, though there are several in various planning stages. NGT operates the Isle of Grain LNG terminal, a converted natural gas storage facility in southern England. The terminal has a natural gas processing capacity of 470 Mmcf/d, with plans to eventually increase capacity to 1.5 Bcf/d. The terminal received its first delivery of LNG in July 2005 from Algeria.

ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum have received regulatory approval for the South Hook LNG receiving terminal in Milton Haven, Wales. The terminal will be dedicated to receiving LNG from the Qatargas II liquefaction project in Ras Laffin, Qatar, which is also a joint project between the two companies. The South Hook LNG project is scheduled to come online by 2007, with an initial capacity of 1.0 Bcf/d and a maximum capacity of 2.1 Bcf/d by 2009. Finally, BG has partnered with Netherlands-based Petroplus and Malaysia-based Petronas to also build an LNG receiving terminal in Milton Haven on the site of an existing natural gas storage facility owned by Petroplus. The companies received regulatory approval from Ofgem in early 2005 for the project, called Dragon. However, the European Commission announced that it would launch an investigation into the project, because Ofgem had granted the Dragon facility a waiver from EU rules requiring that all LNG terminals be open to third-party access. If the project does attain final regulatory approval, Dragon should be completed by the end of 2007 with an initial capacity of 580 Mmcf/d.
There has been discussion concerning the construction of two LNG receiving terminals in the Netherlands, at Eemshaven and Rotterdam, though neither project has progressed beyong the initial planning stages. These LNG terminals would likely facilitate re-exports to the rest of Europe, as the Netherlands is able to meet it own consumption through domestic production. A proposed LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Germany has also been considered.