July 16 (UPI) -- With oil output slipping from offshore Norway, a government regulator said Monday there was a strong focus on increasing exploration and production activity.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the nation's energy regulator, reported total production for oil in June averaged 1.48 million barrels per day. That's 3 percent less than expected and 4 percent below last year's forecast. For the second month in a row, the NPD said the main reason for a decline in production was because of technical issues offshore.
In its report Monday, the regulator added colder temperatures in the region were also inhibiting production. So far this year, the NPD said 86 new development wells were drilled in Norwegian waters, about the same level as this time last year.
To keep production going, the government called for a "significant effort" from all players.
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"Drilling new wells is the single most important measure to increase recovery," Ingrid Sølvberg, director of development and operations at the NPD, said in a statement. "Therefore, it is important that we constantly identify new drilling targets and drill new wells."
The offshore trend for Norway is accelerating, however. The NPD said it expected at least 40 exploration wells this year, compared with about 36 last year. Much of the focus, the regulator said, has been in the North and Norwegian Seas where drilling infrastructure is already in place.
German energy company Wintershall submitted plans, meanwhile, for new operations that will be tied to existing North Sea infrastructure. Last week, Norwegian major Equinor submitted plans for a new phase of the Troll field, which will eventually form part of the backbone behind Brent, the global benchmark for the price of oil.
Those projects represent about $12.4 billion in investments for Norway. Much of the sector's operations, meanwhile, concentrate on using Norwegian labor.
"We are seeing a record-breaking number of projects in the implementation phase, with more projects currently being planned," Sølvberg said.
The NPD said its surveys resulted in an increase in the estimate of undiscovered resources from 18.2 billion to 25.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
