Low oil prices caused fall in production value

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Lower prices for crude oil and natural gas contributed to a fall in production value of NOK 126 billion in 2015 for the extraction and related services. This is a significant decrease of 16 per cent in comparison with 2014.

Production value for the extraction and related services amounted to NOK 525 billion and NOK 137 billion respectively in 2015; an overall decrease of 16 per cent compared with 2014. The price drop was significant, however, the production of crude oil and natural gas (measured in Sm3) increased by 4 and 7 per cent respectively from the previous year.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Value of production, intermediate consumption and value added. Total for the oil and gas industries

Price drop had most impact on the extraction industry

The extraction industry had a significant decrease in production value by 19 per cent in 2015. At the same time, the investment dropped by 10 per cent. Both were related to and caused by the oil and gas price drop.

Intermediate consumption decreased by NOK 10 billion for the extraction industry, from NOK 62 billion in 2014 to NOK 52 billion in 2015. A decline in intermediate consumption can largely be explained by the transition to a new survey form (see more about Transition to new survey form in Appendix Box below). Adjusting the effect of the survey transition, the intermediate consumption for the extraction industry in 2015 was approximately at the same level as in 2014.

Value added in the extraction industry decreased by 19 per cent in 2015, mostly caused by the decline in production value.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Value added, by industry

Slight decrease overall for the extraction-related service industry

The extraction-related service industry was affected far less by the price drop overall. The industry had only a slight reduction in production value by 0.8 per cent, and a 0.4 per cent decrease in intermediate consumption. Although the extraction service industry overall in 2015 remained at the same level as in 2014, there were large disparities between companies within the industry.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Employment, by industry

Significant decrease in employment in the extraction-related service industry

In 2015, there were 33 399 employees in the extraction-related service industry, a decrease of 9 per cent compared to 2014. Wage costs decreased by 7 per cent, which is slightly less than the reduction in employment. There were 26 470 employees in the extraction industry, 3 per cent fewer than in 2014. Wage costs increased slightly by 1 per cent. The ratio between wage and employee, measured by wages per employee, has also grown in 2015.

Transition to new survey form

Structural business statistics, including extraction and related services, was based on new survey from 2015, and the new survey submits via Altinn. There were only a few changes in the survey for the extraction-related service industry. On the other hand, the transition has more impact for the extraction industry survey. In particular, the calculation of intermediate consumption was mostly affected (see further details in About the statistics). Overall, considering SSB quality of statistics has improved with new form.

New data source

From 2015, the structural statistics are based on a new data basis for wage earners. In 2015 was reporting to NAV coordinated with the reporting of payroll and personnel data to the Tax Administration and Statistics Norway. The common reporting system called A-ordningen. A-ordningen generally provides better data in a way that it is more accurate at the individual level, and it covers several wage earner conditions than the AA-registeret.

New sources aslo used for cellecting environmental tax and tariff revenues.