Norwegian crude oil production totaled 1.546 million b/d in February, up 6.8% from 1.448 million b/d in February 2013, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
The latest figure is down slightly from the final figure of 1.562 million b/d produced in January.
The year-on-year improvement in February was despite technical problems and repair work, which the NPD said reduced output at the Draugen, Gullfaks, Skirne, Visund and Volve fields offshore Norway.
"So far this year oil production is level with the NPD's prognosis," the directorate said, giving no further details.
Norway also produced 386,000 b/d of NGLs and condensate in February, up 6.3% from 363,000 b/d in February 2013.
In January Norway produced 404,000 b/d of NGL and condensate.
The NPD's director of prognosis, Jan Bygdevoll, in December predicted an increase in crude production due to new fields coming on stream, including Skarv, which started at the beginning of last year and continued to ramp up throughout the year.
Operator BP said in January last year that it would ramp up output at the field to 125,000 b/d of oil equivalent in the first six months of operations and expected a maximum daily rate of about 165,000 boe/d by the end of the year. A BP spokesman told Platts in December that Skarv actually achieved maximum production of 199,000 boe/d in October and November.
In recent years Norway has seen its production steadily decline from peaks of over 3 million b/d a decade ago to less than half of that, although recent major discoveries are set to come on stream in the next few years. This includes the massive Johan Sverdrup oil and gas discovery, which will start production in late 2019 and achieve peak output levels of over 500,000 boe/d.
Last month the NPD said Norwegian oil production would average 1.463 million b/d in 2014, in line with the 2013 level of 1.464 million b/d.
