OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian oil and gas companies need to increase investment in exploration and production to slow an expected decline in the country in the coming years, Norway’s oil industry regulator said in a report on Wednesday.
Norway is Europe’s largest gas supplier and a major oil producer. However, several of its largest offshore fields are in decline and no new developments are currently planned for the 2030s.
Oil and gas production accounts for about a quarter of the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP), while the cumulative difference in revenues until 2050 between the highest and lowest production estimates amounts to some $1.4 trillion, according to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) report.
“There is therefore a need to intensify exploration and investment in fields, discoveries and infrastructure if the decline in production is to be slowed,” Kjersti Dahle, head of technology and analysis at the directorate, said in a statement.
Oil companies plan to drill more than 40 exploration wells off Norway this year, including eight in the Barents Sea.
“But this is not enough to reduce the extent of the decline (in production),” said Kjersti Dahle.
The body wanted oil companies to take more risks to drill in frontier areas where the chances of making bigger discoveries are higher, she added.
If exploration in the Barents Sea fails and few new discoveries are made elsewhere, oil and gas production will fall to near zero by 2050, one NOD scenario predicts.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; by Mara Vîlcu, edited by Kate Entringer)
Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
