Norway is Europe's largest petroleum liquids producer, the world's third-largest natural gas exporter, and an important supplier of both petroleum liquids and natural gas to other European countries. Norway is the largest holder of crude oil and natural gas reserves in Europe, and it provides much of the petroleum liquids and natural gas consumed on the continent. Norway was the third-largest exporter of natural gas in the world after Russia and Qatar in 2015. In 2015, the petroleum and natural gas sector accounted for almost 40% of Norway's export revenues and more than 15% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).1 Norway's petroleum and other liquids production peaked in 2001 at 3.4 million barrels per day (b/d) and declined to 1.8 million b/d in 2013 before growing to slightly less than 2.0 million b/d in 2015. Natural gas production, on the other hand, increased nearly every year since 1993, except for a small decline in year-over-year production in 2011 and 2013. Hydropower is the principal source of Norway's electricity supply, accounting for 97% of total electricity generation in 2014. In June 2012, government officials from Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom confirmed their plans for subsea electric power connections between their countries to strengthen the northern European electricity grid and to increase supply security. The Norwegian state-owned energy system operator, Statnett, will work with the United Kingdom's National Grid to construct the Norway-United Kingdom cable connection, expected to be completed in 2021. Statnett will also cooperate with Germany to build the Norway-Germany cable, expected to be completed in 2019.2 The historic agreement between Norway and Russia, which defined their maritime boundaries in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Sea and resolved their 40-year old boundary dispute, was fully ratified by both governments in early 2011 and went into effect in July 2011. As a result of the agreement, Norway gained about 34,000 square miles of continental shelf. The agreement requires the two countries to jointly develop oil and natural gas deposits that cross over their boundary.