Oil and gas activities, production (discontinued), Q4 2008

In the first nine months of this year the production of natural gas ended at 71 million Sm³ o.e. This is an increase by 7.5 million Sm³ o.e. or 11.8 per cent compared to the same period last year. The exploitation of natural gas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf started in 1977 and there have been a steady growth in production since then. Natural gas production makes up 40 per cent of the total petroleum production. Today there are 45 Norwegian gas producing fields.

The production of oil ended at 90.8 million Sm³ o.e. in the first half of 2008. This is a decrease of 5.4 million Sm³ o.e or 6 per cent compared to the same period in 2007. There are 53 Norwegian oil producing fields; three of these started their production in 2008, Volve, Alvheim and Vilje. The largest oilfield is Ekofisk, this is Norway’s first oilfield and oil extraction started in 1971.

Tables:

• Table 1 Net total petroleum production. 1 000 Sm3
• Table 43 Historic production in abandoned fields and fields on stream per 31 December 2007
• Table 44 Original recoverable reserves and remaining reserves in fields in production per 31 December 2007