Norway's combined oil and gas production lagged an official forecast by 1% in January, weighed down by a decline in the exports of natural gas, data from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) showed on Thursday.
Norway is Europe's largest supplier of natural gas and a major producer of oil, but output varies from month to month depending on maintenance needs and other stoppages at more than 90 offshore fields.
Overall oil, condensate, natural gas liquids and gas output in January stood at 0.663 million standard cubic metres per day, equivalent to 4.17 million barrels of oil equivalent, a decrease of 6.5% year-on-year.
Natural gas production in January fell to 346.1 million cubic metres (mcm) per day from 379.3 mcm a year earlier, and lagged a forecast of 355.2 mcm by 2.6%, the regulator said on its website.
Crude oil output declined to 1.78 million barrels per day (bpd) in January from 1.83 million bpd in the same month last year, but came in above a forecast of 1.73 million bpd, NOD's preliminary data showed.
(Reuters - Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Stine Jacobsen)