Perspectives of Norwegian petroleum resources

摘要

In order to relate the remaining Norwegian petroleum resources to a time perspective one has to make assumptions of the future production of oil and gas. If there is assumed an average annual oil production of 80 million tons (the average the last 5 years) and an average annual gas production of 65 million ton oil equivalent (t.o.e.), which is a realistic future level of exploitation, the oil resources will last for approximately 45 years and the gas resources for approximately 80 years. There is expected that the future resources will be more challenging to find, exploit and commercialize, than those resources which are discovered so far. It is therefore important to follow strategies which maintain a high economical efficiency in all phases of the petroleum activity by looking into the possibilities for improvements. This is a continuous process which is important in order to maintain the Norwegian Continental Shelf internationally competitive. Profitable projects within improved oil recovery from existing fields, technical solutions which make it possible to exploit smaller oil and gas fields and cost efficient ways in order to discover the remaining resources on the Norwegian Shelf must be established. The remaining petroleum resources give a long term perspective in relation to the future petroleum activities on the Norwegian Shelf. 4 figs.