Oil production fell to 1.994 million barrels a day in January from 1.998 million barrels in December, while net gas output rose to 10.6 billion cubic meters from 10 billion cubic meters, according to preliminary figures published recently by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The country pumped about 346,000 barrels a day of condensate and natural-gas liquids.
Norway, the world’ s second-biggest gas exporter, discovered oil 40 years ago and many existing fields are being depleted. Oil output peaked between 2000 and 2001 and is forecast to drop 6 percent this year to about 1.87 million barrels a day, the directorate estimates. Gas output is forecast to rise to 105 billion cubic meters.
Oil production for 2009 fell 7.2 percent to 115.5 million standard cubic meters, while gas output rose 4.2 percent to 103.4 billion standard cubic meters, the directorate said.
Norway ranks behind Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Kuwait in oil exports. It’ s the second- biggest exporter of natural gas.
Following is a table of final data for Norway’ s oil and gas production in December. All figures are in standard cubic meters of oil equivalent, where 1 standard cubic meter of oil equivalent equals 1,000 standard cubic meters of gas. One cubic meter of oil equals 6.29 barrels.
- Crude oil production in cubic meters: 9.8 million - Natural-gas production in cubic meters: 10.0 billion - NGL and condensate in cubic meters: 1.8 million
