Norway's monthly oil production fell to an 11-year low of 2.29 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, hit by halts of many offshore fields for maintenance, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Tuesday.
Production was down from 2.65 million bpd in May and 2.88 million in June 2004.
"A preliminary overview shows this is the lowest monthly production since August 1994, when output was two million barrels a day," Rune Hult, an official at the state-run NPD, told Reuters.
Norway, usually the world's third largest exporter behind Saudi Arabia and Russia, expects oil production to average almost three million bpd in 2005. Norway's output has risen most years since production started in 1971.
Hult said an unusual number of offshore installations were shut for maintenance in June. Fields including Brage, Grane, Heidrun, Kvitebjorn, Oseberg South and Statfjord B were affected.
Operators take advantage of the Nordic summers to carry out maintenance.
The NPD also said production of natural gas liquids and condensate fell to 289,000 bpd in June from 385,000 bpd in May, according to the preliminary figures.
It said that overall production in May totalled 22.1 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents, of which 13.1 million were oil, 7.2 million natural gas, 1.2 million natural gas liquids and 0.7 million condensate.
The total was 0.1 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents less than in May 2004.
OUTPUT DOWN
And production in January-May 2005 totalled 111.5 million standard cubic metres of oil equivalents, 3.9 million less than in the same five months of 2004.
"The decline is due to production halts and to technical problems on a number of fields," the NPD said in a statement of the five-month total.
A Norwegian revised budget in May predicted total oil and gas output for 2005 at 264 million standard cubic metres, level with 2004 and down from a forecast in October of 271 million.
One reason for the budget's downwards revision was the closure of the 205,000 bpd Snorre and linked Vigdis oilfields on Nov. 28 last year after a gas leak on Snorre. Snorre restarted gradually in late January.
The Norwegian government reckons that oil output will be roughly stable until 2007, when it will start to tail off. Total oil and gas output is set to peak in 2008, held up by rising gas production.
