Norway sold 9.9 billion cubic meters of gas in January, down 6% from 10.5 Bcm a year earlier and below the 10.2 Bcm in December, according to preliminary figures Friday from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
It said gas and oil production during January was hit by technical problems at the Draugen, Ekofisk, Gullfaks and Skuld fields offshore Norway.
The NPD gave no further details Friday, but it said in November that downtime at the Njord gas and oilfield had been having an impact on output due to structural integrity problems with the Njord A production platform.
The Njord oil and gas field and its satellite Hyme field have been shut since July 27 last year, and Statoil said earlier this month they should resume production mid 2014.
Norwegian 67% state-controlled Statoil is also having continuing trouble with compressors at its giant Troll gas field, Norway's largest, which is hampering output.
The Troll A platform has cut output capacity since January last year due to technical problems with a compressor.
Statoil CFO Torgrim Reitan told an analysts conference last year his group had reduced maximum capacity at Troll to 95 million cu m a day. Normal capacity is 120 million cu m/d.
He said technical problems at Troll would stretch to the second half of 2014.
Norway, Europe's second biggest gas supplier after Russia, saw a downward trend in gas production in 2013.
The NPD, issuing its annual production and resources forecasts last month, said it expected Norwegian gas output of 107.0 Bcm in 2014 compared with 107.2 Bcm in 2013. It forecast total gas production of 106.3 Bcm in 2015.
