Oil draught brings Norway to the Arctic
Norway’s oil production declines quicker than expected and the oil industry will have to look more in the Arctic, if production is to stabilize, the Norwegian Petroluem Directorate concludes in a new report.
The bi-annual resource report from the Petroleum Directorate reads that Norwegian oil production declines quicker than expected and that new reserves do not match production figures. It is now unlikely that the country’s oil reserves will increase with five billion barrels by 2015 as outlined by the directorate in 2005.
The report, which was issued this week, still highlights that major hydrocarbon findings can be made on the Norwegian shelf. Such findings can be made in the areas until now little explored by the industry, the directorate maintains.
In other words, the oil industry will have to go to the Arctic if it to find big new fields. It is first of all there, in the northern part of the Barents Sea, in the waters around Spitsbergen and around Jan Mayen, that Norway still has big unexplored areas.
The oil industry has over the last years had major hopes for findings also in the southern part of the Barents Sea. However, results have been disappointing. Only small and insignificant resources have been found, the resource report reads. The directorate now concludes that the resource potential of the southern parts of the Barents Sea is considerably less than previously expected.
The directorate does however have major expectations for the northern parts of the Barents Sea, as well as the southwestern part of the sea. Also the Svalbard waters are believed to contain resources. The companies do however not yet have the green light for drilling in all parts of these areas. While the southern parts of the Barents Sea are opened for exploration, and the Jan Mayen waters are in the process of being opened, the Barents Sea North is still closed territory for the oilmen.
In 2008, Norwegian oil production totaled 123 million tons of oil equivalents. In 2009 production is expected to decline to 111 million tons. Gas production meanwhile increases strongly and is expected to be up 25 percent over the next four years. In 2008, Norway produced 141,3 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 99,2 billion tons were exported.
