Norway's oil, gas firms raise investment forecasts (updated)
17/11/2022 07:07
(Adds 2023 data, detail)
OSLO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Norway's oil and gas firms have
raised their investment forecasts for 2022 and 2023 as more
development plans are being made, a national statistics office
(SSB) survey showed on Thursday.
The country's biggest business sector now expects to invest
175.3 billion Norwegian crowns ($17.50 billion) in 2022, up from
a forecast of 172.8 billion made in August, the SSB said.
Next year's investments are seen at 149.7 billion crowns, up
from a previous view of 135.3 billion, but the figure is
expected to increase as companies plan to approve more projects
by the end of this year, it added.
Spending on new offshore fields is only included in the
survey when companies submit plans for development and operation
(PDO) to the authorities.
Oil companies are expected to approve more than a dozen
new projects by the end of this year, when Norway's temporary
tax incentives, which were approved in 2020 to support offshore
investments, expire.
Rising costs and supply chain bottlenecks, as well as
market uncertainty could, however, put some projects on hold.
Last week, Equinor EQNR.OL
postponed a decision
on whether to develop the Arctic Wisting oil discovery,
which would have become the world's nothernmost producing field.
($1 = 10.0200 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)
((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com; +47 9027 6699; Reuters
Messaging: nerijus.adomaitis.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))