Politics May Slow Pace of Norway’s Petroleum Devt

The oil industry warns that Norway’s failure to find and develop further sources of oil and gas could hasten a decline in the country’s supplies to the world market, with worst-case scenarios predicting Norway’s total oil and gas output to fall by 70% in the next 10 years. If the country were to move ahead with development it could reduce the decline to between 20% and 40%, based on its estimates for unproduced resources.

…SV leader Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s new finance minister, believes it’s more important to encourage alternative sources of economic growth than try to boost declining oil output by opening up new resource areas. “We need to balance out development of industries…to have several legs to stand on in addition to the oil and gas industry,” Halvorsen told Dow Jones Newswires.

Schlumberger