Three quarters of all oil and gas discoveries made on the Norwegian continental shelf over the past 20 years have not yet begun to be extracted, according to a report from the responsible Norwegian authority, Sokkeldirektoratet.
According to the authority, equivalent to 2,000 billion Norwegian kronor in today's monetary value has been invested in searching for oil and gas in Norwegian waters between 2004-2023. The value of the discoveries made is estimated to be over three times as much, and the return from extraction has already covered the search costs over the 20 years.
Around 50 of 190 discoveries have been developed and are in production, which means that about three quarters of the discoveries remain to be extracted.
During the last five years of the period covered by the report, the value of the discoveries, including those in the so-called Troll area, has been more than double the search costs.
Sokkeldirektoratet expects oil and gas production to decrease going forward, but how fast the decline will be depends on the pace of search activities and technological development.
