NORWAY'S OIL INVESTMENT $21 BLN

REUTERS - Oil and gas investments in Norway are expected to rise by 3.8% next year to 194.6 billion Norwegian crowns ($21.2 billion) before declining in subsequent years, an industry lobby group said on Thursday.

The Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) previously predicted 2020 investments would amount to 182.5 billion crowns. The increase was driven by rising costs on some projects but there was no sign of inflation spiraling, it said.

Norway, Western Europe's largest oil and gas producer, is expected to boost its full-year output in 2020 thanks to last October's start-up of the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea.

The investment forecasts were based on a survey of 13 companies that operate oil and gas fields in Norway.

Investments are forecast to drop to 170.7 billion crowns in 2021 and 163.3 billion in 2022, compared with a previous view of 168 billion and 156.5 billion crowns respectively, the NOG added.

The higher forecasts were driven by an expectation of rising activity as companies bring forward more projects and invest in technology to boost extraction rates, it said.

A separate survey by Statistics Norway (SSB) in November suggested that oil and gas investments in 2020 will hit a five-year high of 182.6 billion crowns.

The NOG's higher forecast was primarily because of the inclusion of more projects in the survey, such as Eni unit Vaar Energi's Balder X project, the lobby group said.

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