Norway's State-Owned Petoro Reports 6.7% Fall In Oil Q407 Oil Output - Gas #s Up Sharply - Reuters

[hatrack]

OSLO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Norwegian state-owned petroleum company Petoro reported a 6.7 percent drop in oil production for the fourth quarter on Thursday though higher gas output kept total production steady. Oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) production fell to 664,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter from 712,000 bpd a year earlier, Petoro AS said in a statement.

But fourth-quarter gas production rose 14 percent to 96 million standard cubic metres from 84 million scm in the same period a year ago, boosting total output to nearly 1.27 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 1.24 million boed.

Total 2007 daily production amounted to 1.20 million boed, on par with 2006, with full-year oil and NGL production down 9 percent but gas output up 14 percent. Norway is struggling to maintain oil production against a declining trend as production from ageing North Sea oilfields tapers off, though Norwegian gas production is growing steeply.

Stavanger-based Petoro has no production operations of its own but manages the Norwegian government's direct interest in oil and gas fields off Norway. The company transfers nearly all its profits into the government's coffers.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSL2886990120080228?rpc=401&

[phantom power]

1. Huh. Maybe they can form a support group with Mexico.

"Governments Facing Oil Revenue Collapse Together."

[hunter]

4. International trade has been an utterly amazing human innovation.

It has caused all the world's economic and ecological catastrophes to converge upon a single point in time.

Future historians will probably have a scholarly name for that phenomena.

[phantom power]

7. That name may already exist: "supercritical complex system"

[hunter]

8. I'm not sure we are ready to go all Asimov-Campbell psychohistorical yet.

But the instability of the system is not surprising.

[KansDem]

2. Hey! Why can't *we* have a "state-owned petroleum company!"

The company transfers nearly all its profits into the government's coffers.

What's wrong with this idea! :D

[phantom power]

3. Well, we're more like a "petroleum company owned state"

[KansDem]

6. Good point!

Good point! :thumbsup:

[endarkenment]

5. Norway must be a dictatorship.

It has a state owned oil company. QED.