Norwegian Nov Gas Output Beats Forecast

Norway produced more gas than forecast in November, according to preliminary figures from the upstream regulator Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, and about as much as it did in November 2016.

Each month so far Norway has produced more gas this year than last, with the exception of a minor blip in May, putting the country on course for another record-breaking year. It is now on 112.7bn m³ since January, compared with last year's 112.9bn m³ for the same period; last year ended at 116.7bn m³.

This contrasts with oil output, which underperformed as a result of technical problems or outages including Draugen, Gina Krog, and the Eni-operated Goliat field, which was out for the whole month. November oil output was 9% lower than forecast, and for the year as a whole it is close to 2% lower than forecast, the NPD said.

This month saw a brief outage at Norway's largest gas field Troll on December 12, the same day that Western Europe was impacted by a one-day stoppage of Russian gas flows via Austria. However that Troll outage alone is unlikely to significantly affect the trend for higher Norwegian exports this year.