Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on May 27, 2025
By Stine Jacobsen and Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO (Reuters) -Norwegian oil and gas investments are expected to hit a record this year, and to decline next year, a statistics office survey of industry players showed on Tuesday.
The country's biggest business sector expects to invest 269.1 billion crowns ($26.62 billion) in 2025, up from a 253.8 billion crowns estimate in February and compared to 251.2 billion last year.
Preliminary estimates for oil and gas investments in 2026 were 206.6 billion crowns, compared to a previous estimate of 197.1 billion crowns in February.
Forecasts typically rise as companies finalise spending plans in the months leading up to a new year.
Several new oil and gas fields are expected to be developed this year and the next, the statistics office, or SSB, said.
One oil company, Vaar Energi, majority-owned by Eni, aims to approve up to 14 new projects by the end of this year, targeting smaller oil and gas discoveries that are situated near existing platforms, which would boost output from already-producing fields.
Still, it is "unlikely that the new developments will be able to prevent a decline in oil and gas investments in 2026," the SSB said.
($1 = 10.1049 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Barbara Lewis)