Norway Sees Record Oil & Gas Investment in 2024

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Norway has seen record levels of investment of almost US$23 billion in its oil and gas (O&G) sector in 2024.

The country's official data institute, Statistics Norway, revealed that total 2024 investments in oil and gas activity, including pipeline transportation, are now estimated at US$22.9 billion, which is up US$1.1 billion on estimates made in the previous quarter. The jump of just over 5% has been attributed to far higher investment activity this year on the many developments that were started late in 2022 as well as cost inflation in the industry. Norway has become the European's Union's leading supplier of gas following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"Development projects tend to have significantly higher activity in their second year than in their first year. In addition, clearly higher activity in exploration, pipeline transportation and shutdown and removal this year also contributes to the growth," the institute stated in its latest findings. "The increase is driven by higher figures for field development, but estimates are also increasing for all the other main categories. The higher estimate is mainly due to significantly higher reported cost estimates on some development projects. These increased costs will probably not contribute much to expanded production capacity more than initially planned. There have been no new development projects included in this count."

The institute expects 2025 to continue this upward trend with an estimate of 8.9% higher than the estimate given for 2024 at the end of 2023. "The estimate for 2024 has continued to increase since the estimate was given a year ago, and is now 10.4% higher. It is expected that a plan for development and operation (PDO) will be delivered to the authorities for some new developments next year, which will raise the estimate for 2025 beyond what is included in the count now."

In its most recent budget statement for 2025, the government said that it expects its oil liquids production - which includes condensate and natural gas liquids (NGL) - to grow by 5.2% next year to about 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boe/d). At the same time, natural gas production will fall slightly by 1.6% to 121 billion cubic meters (Bcm) from an estimated 2024 output figure of 123 Bcm. Most of the supply will come from the giant Johan Castberg field where a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) was anchored in September and is in the process of being hooked up to the subsea facilities in preparation for production start-up towards the end of the year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Project Database can click here for a list of detailed reports for active Equinor projects in the Johan Castberg field.

The field consists of the three discoveries: Skrugard, Havis and Drivis, which were made between 2011 and 2013. It has estimated recoverable volumes of between 450 million and 650 million barrels. The field will produce for 30 years and at its peak, it may produce 220,000 Boe/d, according to developer Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) (Stavanger, Norway). The field development concept includes 30 wells distributed across 10 subsea templates and two satellites that will now be tied back to the FPSO. So far, 13 wells have been drilled with drilling to continue on the rest over the next couple of years.

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