Revenue from petroleum up for Norway

June 6 (UPI) -- The Norwegian government reported a gain in cash from first quarter petroleum activities as oil prices rebounded in response to OPEC-led balancing efforts.

The Norwegian government's statistics office reported total revenue for the first quarter at $37.4 million, up 2.5 percent from the same period in the previous year.

Norway is one of the region's largest oil and gas producers and sends nearly all of its offshore output to the export market. The government reported net cash flow from the first quarter at $4.2 million, better than the fourth quarter by more than 80 percent. Year-over-year, however, the revenue was down about 6 percent.

The government reported total petroleum production for the first four months of the year at about 523 million barrels of oil equivalents. Total output for the period is up less than one percent from last year.

Statistics Norway, the government's record-keeping division, said last month the value of crude oil exports in April was $2.2 billion, an increase of 30 percent year-over-year.

"Because the number of exported barrels of crude oil was approximately the same as in April last year, the rise is due to a price increase of almost $11 per barrel," the agency stated.

Norwegian energy company Statoil, which is co-owned by the government, is set to start new production from the Gina Krog field in the Norwegian waters of the North Sea later this month. Statoil drilled its first well at the field in 2015 and estimated the total recoverable reserves at 225 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Norway was mentioned as a possible future contributor to an effort led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to balance an oversupplied market with managed declines. A spokesperson for the Norwegian Energy Ministry told UPI in response to emailed questions last month the country "is not in a position where product regulations are in question."