Norway: Oil output falls short of expectations for third month straight

Norwegian oil production during March 2020 fell below predictions made by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), according to the directorate’s report on Friday.

Preliminary production figures for March 2020 show an average daily production of 2,038,000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is a decrease of 64,000 barrels per day compared to February.

Total gas sales were 10.7 billion Sm3 (GSm3), which is an increase
of 0.7 GSm3 from the previous month.

Average daily liquids production in March was: 1,682,000 barrels
of oil, 328,000 barrels of NGL, and 27,000 barrels of condensate.

According to the NPD, the oil production in March is 4.4 per cent
lower than the NPD’s forecast, and 3.4 per cent below the forecast so far this
year. The Directorate stated that the main reasons that production in March was
below forecast were technical problems on some fields.

The total petroleum production for the first three months in 2020
is about 60.5 million Sm3 oil equivalents (MSm3 o.e.), broken down as follows:
about 24.6 MSm3 o.e. of oil, about 4.9 MSm3 o.e. of NGL and condensate and
about 31.0 MSm3 o.e. of gas for sale.

The total volume is 2.9 MSm3 o.e. higher than in 2019.