Norway says it's not even close to done as an oil and gas producer

June 15 (UPI) -- Norway is one of the top oil and natural gas producers in the world and isn't even close to reaching its full potential, a national report found.

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.

A report from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said total discovered and potential resources are up more than 40 percent since 1990.

"We have been producing oil and gas in Norway for nearly 50 years and we are still not halfway done," Ingrid Solvberg, the NPD's director for development, said in a statement.

Most of the new discoveries made offshore Norway have been in the North Sea, but the largest are in the Barents Sea. The 70 or so discoveries made recently hold an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Through more advanced technologies, the government estimates about the recovery potential is high.

"Vast volumes of oil and gas have been discovered on the Norwegian shelf that are still waiting to be produced," Solvberg said. "We want companies with the ability and willingness to utilize new knowledge and advanced technology."

A Norwegian energy company, DNV GL, is leading a joint research project that includes the Norwegian Research Council, the regional subsidiary of Italian energy company ENI and U.S. supermajor Exxon Mobil as its partners. The partnership is testing whether or not wind power could be used to help push water into offshore fields to increase reservoir pressure and stimulate production.