Norway cuts oil investments

OSLO: Norway's statistical office cut its forecast for 2012 oil and gas investments by 2 percent to 143.2 billion crowns ($25.92 billion) due to fewer investments planned at onshore installations, the agency said on Thursday.

The Nordic country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and the second-largest for gas. All its oil and gas output takes place at offshore platforms, with some processing activities taking place on-land.

"The decrease is due to lower estimates of onshore activity, while the estimates indicate about the same level of investment in exploration, field development, fields on stream and pipeline transportation," Statistics Norway said in a statement.

The agency compared its 2012 estimates, which it released for the first time, with forecasts it gave for 2011 investments at the same time last year. Forecasts are released every quarter.

The cost of exploration activity in 2012 would decrease 1 percent to 29.8 billion crowns compared with the same time last year, Statistics Norway said, as limited rig capacity would limit the amount of drilling activity oil firms will be able to conduct. Statistics Norway raised its 2011 oil and gas investment forecasts 2 percent to 144.4 billion crowns.

It said it expected Norway's parliament in upcoming days to approve development plans for the Ekofisk South and Eldfisk II areas, operated by ConocoPhillips for Valemon, operated by Statoil and for Knarr, by BG.

"If parliament approves the plans, significant investments from these projects are expected," it said. Exploration activity estimates for 2011 were cut 1 percent to 28.1 billion crowns.

Copyright Reuters, 2011