The shelf in 2010 – Investments
13/01/2011
The petroleum sector experienced a temporary decrease in investments in 2010. It is expected that investments in 2011 will be slightly over the peak year 2009 – approx. NOK 150 billion.
Slightly more than NOK 130 billion was invested in the petroleum sector in 2010, of which approx. NOK 30 billion were in connection with exploration activities. The decrease from 2009 to 2010 of around NOK 10 billion was mainly caused by decisions regarding expected investments in facilities – both subsea and platforms – being postponed. Some of this can be ascribed to the financial crisis that occurred in the autumn of 2008. There has been no decrease in investments in wells and modifications.
It is expected that investments will increase by around NOK 15 billion from 2010 to 2011, to a total of approx. NOK 150 billion. Increased investments in facilities are the main reason. A large share of these investments are in connection with the development of the North Sea fields Gudrun and Valemon, and Goliat in the Barents Sea, as well as major developments on the existing fields Eldfisk and Åsgard, in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea respectively.
Continued growth in investments is expected in the years immediately following 2011, with a new peak in 2013. This year’s estimates are somewhat higher than last year’s, due to a number of new projects including both development of new discoveries and new field projects, which have been proposed by the operators in 2010.
It is also expected that exploration activity will remain high in the coming years, triggering major investments.
Due to this development in the activities, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate once again sees that capacity constraints could become an issue. Access to rig capacity is particularly important to realise the expected activity level. The current plans include many wells, both exploration and production wells on fields.
Updated: 13/01/2011
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