Norway Misses Production Forecast as October Output Slips

The Gullfaks field is one of the fields that contributes to petroleum production on the Norwegian continental shelf. Gullfaks A is seen in the foreground. (Credit: Øyvind Hagen/Equinor)

Norway's combined oil and gas production lagged an official forecast by 3% in October, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) said on Thursday.

Norway is Europe's largest supplier of natural gas and a major producer of oil, but output varies from month to month depending on maintenance needs and other stoppages at close to 100 offshore fields.

Overall oil, condensate, natural gas liquids and gas output stood at 0.657 million standard cubic metres per day in October, equivalent to 4.13 million barrels of oil equivalent, a decrease of 0.6% year-on-year.

Natural gas production in October fell to 336.8 million cubic metres (mcm) per day from 342.7 mcm a year earlier, lagging a forecast of 344 mcm by 2.1%, the regulator said on its website.

Crude oil output rose to 1.82 million barrels per day (bpd) for the month from 1.78 million bpd one year earlier, and came in above a forecast of 1.81 million bpd, NOD's preliminary data showed.

But the total oil liquids output, which includes crude as well as condensates and natural gas liquids, lagged the NOD's forecast by 3.7%, the data showed.

(Reuters - Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Nora Buli)