Norway earns record revenues from energy crunch

The Norwegian state earned record revenues from the oil and gas industry in 2021 on the back of soaring prices and high levels of production, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) reported on January 13.

The main factor was record-high gas prices in Europe, the NPD said, brought about by a strong rebound in demand and continued supply constraints. Production came to 4mn barrels of oil equivalent/day in 2021, only slightly down from the high level set in 2020. The NPD noted that five new fields were brought on stream during the year, namely Duva, Yme, Solveig and Martin Linge in the North Sea and Aerfugl in the Norwegian Sea.

Moving forward, production is expected to reach new heights after the second phase of the Johan Sverdrup oilfield kicks off later this year. Sverdrup has been a driving force behind Norwegian production growth since its launch in autumn 2019.

On the downside, NPD noted that only 147bn kroner ($17bn) had been invested during 2021, down from 154bn kroner a year earlier. A further decline to 131bn kroner is envisaged in 2022, but this should recover in the following years and reach 165bn kroner in 2025.