Norway has raised its forecast for investment in its oil and gas sector next year by 20 per cent as companies draw up plans to plough cash into new projects, but lowered slightly its total investment for 2005.

The oil and gas sector counts for around a fifth of Norway’s gross domestic product and extra cash in the sector is considered potentially inflationary. High oil prices are contributing to spur investments.
In 2005, investors will spend a record 88.7 billion Norwegian crowns ($13.75 billion) developing Norway’s fields, down from a previous estimate of 92 billion Norwegian crowns, the national statistics office said.
In 2006 they will spend 78.2 billion crowns, up from last quarter’s forecast of 65.1 billion Norwegian crowns.
“Ormen Lange and Snoehvit (two major new gasfields) are heavy contributors to the high investment level in 2005,” the official statistics office said in a statement.
“The investments from these projects will decrease next year, but other developments will contribute to high investments also in 2006.”
Analysts had expected an upward revision in next year’s investment forecast and said the revision would be even higher if the sector was not already running at full capacity.
The statistics office kept its forecast for 2005 investment in exploration broadly steady at 7.8 billion Norwegian crowns, but raised its forecast for 2006 exploration to 9.5 billion Norwegian crowns from 3.3 billion.