STAVANGER, Norway, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Norway's overall production of oil and natural gas for January was holding steady and oil production was up year-on-year, a government agency said Friday.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the country's energy regulator, said the average January daily production of 1.9 million barrels of oil, natural gas liquids and condensate was about the same as it was in December.
January's oil production of 1.5 million bpd was 6 percent higher than at the same time last year.
Gas production was down and the NPD blamed "various technical problems" at the country's Draugen, Ekofisk, Gullfaks and Skuld fields.
Norway got a boost Thursday when Statoil, Maersk Oil and Lundin Petroleum announced they made a development decision for Phase 1 of the offshore Johan Sverdrup oil field in the Norwegian waters of the North Sea.
Johan Sverdrup, which is expected to have a peak production rate of as much as 650,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, will account for 25 percent of oil production from the Norwegian shelf once production starts in late 2019.
