Norway, the eighth-largest natural gas exporter in the world, is on the verge of increasing its natural gas supplies to Europe, with two large projects soon to come on line: Snohvit in 2006 and Ormen Lange in 2007. The projects will allow Norway to increase its exports to Europe over the next two years by 40 percent — from 85 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year to 120 billion bcm per year. Snohvit and Ormen Lange are non-North Sea projects and will be the main contributors to Norway's increased exports. However with the North Sea in rapid decline and no new large fields beyond Snohvit and Ormen Lange about to go online, Norway will not be able to maintain these increased natural gas exports forever. Snohvit includes Europe's first large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal with an initial capacity of 6 bcm a year and a potential expansion to 12 bcm a year. Built by Norway's Petoro and state-controlled Statoil, France's Total and Gaz de France, and Germany's Amerada Hess Corp. and RWE, the project will combine production from the Snohvit, Albatross and Askeladd fields and connect by pipeline to an onshore receiving terminal at Hammerfest. From there, the gas will be exported from the newly built Melkoya LNG facility. Destinations for the natural gas include the United States, Germany, Spain and France. The three fields have combined reserves of around 193 bcm, which at the expanded production rate gives the project a lifespan of 20 years. Ormen Lange has proved difficult, as it is the only really deep sea field on the Norwegian continental shelf, lying 1,000 meters (about 3,280 feet) below the surface of the sea with a strong subsea current and a very uneven seabed. The natural gas will travel through the world's longest subsea export pipeline, from the Norwegian west-coast city of Nyhamna, via Sleipner in the North Sea, to Easington in the United Kingdom — just over 745 miles total. Ormen Lange is projected to account for 15 to 20 percent of the United Kingdom's daily natural gas demand. However, the field holds around 397 bcm in reserves and at a full-capacity production of 20 bcm a year, the field can also only have a life span of 20 years. Norway's total proven natural gas reserves are 2 trillion cubic meters. At the current production rate of 85 bcm per year, the reserves' lifespan is only 23 years; with a production increase to 120 bcm as announced, that shortens to 16 years. A short production life is not unheard-of among some of the largest natural gas producers; Canada, for example, has less than nine years' worth of natural gas left at its current rate of production and is not actively exploring for new discoveries. Norway is heavily investing in exploration of new fields, especially to its north in the Norwegian and Barents seas. A prospective field being explored is the Onyx prospect, west of the Draugen field, which may contain 59 billion cubic meters. However, the farther north exploration efforts move, the more costly and difficult that exploration is, and any new fields would require the construction of a new transport infrastructure. Furthermore, natural-gas-exporting behemoth Russia contests rights to the Barents Sea. Norway does not need the projects for their monetary value; the country has one of the highest per-capita gross domestic products in the world, at $40,000. On top of that, Oslo created the Petroleum Fund in 1990 in response to the North Sea's declining oil and natural gas reserves and domestic issues such as pension liabilities and welfare obligations. The Fund takes a portion of annual oil and natural gas revenues each year in order to buffer the short-term variations in oil revenues and to act as a mechanism to transfer current wealth to future generations. In a combination of cash, bonds and shares in both domestic and foreign companies, the fund stood at $210 billion at the end of 2005. Norway's announcement that it would increase exports to Europe was a reaction to the growing tensions between European states and Russia over natural gas supplies. The projects themselves are not a reaction to Russia, but the announcement that Oslo would be sending more natural gas to Europe came as Russian state-owned natural gas firm Gazprom told European ambassadors that it will take its natural gas elsewhere if it is not allowed to own downstream assets within the European Union. Norway's production increase could replace roughly 20 percent of the natural gas Europe receives from Russia; however, Europe's energy demand is steadily increasing. Norway's increased production is a Band-Aid to the European energy problem, not a solution. The production increase is a means to give Europe a short-term alternative to some of its dependence on Russia, and to give Europe time to look for new energy supplies — an opportunity Europe is bound to appreciate.