Norway’s crude oil production slipped to 1.38 million bpd in April from 1.387 in March and 1.531 million bpd a year ago, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate reported this week. The trend is a long one and it highlights the challenges one of Europe’s top oil producers faces. Norway has been doing an exemplary job in cutting production costs and boosting efficiencies, especially after the 2014 price collapse that gave a major push to both cost cuts and efficiency improvements across the industry. Yet Equinor and its sector players have had trouble securing long-term supply: new oil and gas discoveries have been few and far between. The situation with new discoveries is so bleak, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate warned in January that oil production in the country this year could drop to the lowest in three decades, to an average of 1.42 million bpd. The April figure is already lower […]