Norwegian oil and gas production slips

STAVANGER, Norway, May 13 (UPI) -- Oil and natural gas liquids production from Norway, one of Europe's top producers, was down about 1.5 percent, government data published Tuesday show.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said about 1.92 million barrels of oil and natural gas liquids were produced in April, about 30,000 bpd, or roughly 1.5 percent, less than the previous month.

Norway is the largest oil producer and the third-largest natural gas producer in Europe. Most of its oil went to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands last year. It supplied members of the European Union with about 21 percent of their gas needs last year, just behind Russia.

NPD said final production figures for March show an average daily production rate of about 1.5 million barrels of oil and 367 billion cubic feet of saleable natural gas production.

Production was down in part because of technical issues at the Skuld field. Operator Statoil says the field has 90 million barrels of oil equivalent in reserves and 90 percent of that is oil.