Oil and gas companies in Norway cut spending forecasts for 2017, deepening what was already a record reduction in offshore investment. The companies expect to invest 147 billion kroner ($17.2 billion) next year, down 3.6 percent from a previous estimate, according to a quarterly survey published Wednesday by Statistics Norway. They previously reduced their forecast in August . “2017 will be yet another challenging year,” Tommy Hansen, director of communications at the Norwegian Oil & Gas Association, an industry lobby group, said in a statement. Energy companies have put exploration and development projects on hold to weather a decline in crude prices that started in 2014. In Norway, western Europe’s biggest oil producer, spending is set to drop for a third year in 2017 as investors wait for the market to rebalance. Cutbacks there and elsewhere threaten to create a supply shortfall in years to come, […]