By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO--Norway's 2012 crude production will likely miss the
official target due to planned maintenance and technical problems
on several fields, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said
Tuesday, as crude production came in below expectations for the
second month in a row in October.
October crude oil production was 12% below the directorate's
forecast and September production was 15% lower than estimated,
which means Norway will likely produce less crude than the expected
1.616 million barrels per day in 2012, the directorate said.
The average production of crude was 1.472 million barrels a day
in October, from 1.245 million barrels a day in September and 1.681
million barrels a day a year earlier, preliminary numbers
showed.
"The oil production is also about 3.0% below the cumulative
prognosis this year. Since the prognosis for the remaining year is
relatively high, it might be a challenge to meet the oil production
target for 2012," said Jan Bygdevoll, Director Forecasting at the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
Norway's crude oil production hit a peak in 2000 at 3.12 million
barrels per day, which nearly halved to 1.68 million barrels per
day in 2011.
The reason for the unexpectedly low October oil production was
planned maintenance and technical problems on fields such as the BP
PLC (BP) operated Valhall and Hod fields, which were closed during
the month to prepare the start-up of a new platform, the
directorate said.
In addition, a hydrocarbon leak at the Ula field led to the
shut-down of the BP operated Ula and Tambar fields and the DONG
Energy AS operated Oselvar fields during October.
Also, plans to start production at the Talisman Energy Inc.
(TLM) operated Yme field and the BP operated Skarv field have been
delayed, although Skarv is now expected to begin production in
December, the directorate said.
Norway's combined oil and gas production peaked in 2004 at 4.54
million barrels of oil equivalent per day. By 2011, total annual
production had fallen 16.7% to 3.8 million barrels per day.
Total petroleum production so far in 2012 is slightly higher
than in the year-earlier period, at 1.176 billion barrels of oil
equivalent, or about 3.86 million barrels per day.
Crude oil's share of Norway's total production so far in 2012 is
40.1%, from a 45.3% share in the year-earlier period. The rest of
the production is gas, natural gas liquids and condensates.
Natural gas sales in October were 10 billion cubic meters, or
2.02 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 3 billion cubic
meters on the month from September and slightly below the
estimate.
Norway also produced 255,000 barrels per day of natural gas
liquids in October, compared with 272,000 barrels per day a month
earlier. Condensates production was 77,000 barrels per day in
October, from 66,000 barrels per day in September.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires