Norway Expects Petroleum Production to Rise 1.5% This Year

Norway, the world’s seventh-biggest oil and second-biggest gas exporter, expects petroleum output to rise 1.5 percent this year and said investments will grow over the next five years.

Oil and natural gas production will rise to 222 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalents this year from 218.7 million cubic meters in 2011, the Stavanger-based Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said in a report today. Production is expected to hold “steady around” this level until 2016 and the share of gas in total sales is expected to increase to 50 percent in 2016 from 46 percent last year, the agency said.