Oil and gas exploration well drilling in Norway rose 75% in 2008 versus 2007, with just under half of the 56 wells drilled yielding a discovery, the country's petroleum directorate, or NPD, said Thursday, as it warned that dramatically lower oil prices present a challenge for investment.
Norway, the world's fifth largest exporter of oil, continued to see a decline in oil output in 2008, the NPD said in a report on 2008 activities, but output was almost 4% higher than had been forecast. The NPD said its goal to add five billion barrels of oil reserves between 2005-2015 "could present a challenge." To date, 1.5 billion barrels have been added. Norway is estimated to hold 13 billion cubic meters of oil equivalents in petroleum resources as of Dec. 31 2008.
In 2008, 242.2 million cubic meters of oil equivalents were produced, 21.8 million less than in Norway's record year of 2004, but slightly up from 2007 levels, while high oil prices during the first half of the year bolstered investment activity to in excess of NOK130 billion, the NPD estimated.