Norway’s crude oil production has not only been sliding this year compared to last year—as expected—but it has also consistently underperformed the production forecasts of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). NPD’s figures for September showed on Friday that Norway’s crude oil production stood at 1.302 million bpd, down by 13 percent compared to August 2018 and down 9.6 percent compared to September last year. Total liquids production—including oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), and condensate—came in at 1.607 million bpd, down 13.7 percent on the month and 9.4 percent on the year. Oil and total liquids production last month was also lower than the NPD’s forecasts, by 11.9 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively. So far this year, only the January production met the directorate’s estimates, while production in all other months through September trailed forecasts. “Oil production for September is about 12 percent below the NPD’s forecast for the month […]