Norwegian oil company Statoil AS A has postponed its 2020 production target of 2.5 million barrels a day by three to four years and is reducing its planned capital expenditure, as the company looks to chase margins over big production numbers. Statoil said it would lower its planned capital expenditure to an average of $20 billion a year through 2016, a reduction of 8%, to free up cash. Statoil Chief Executive Helge Lund said in an interview in London that the company will cut costs $1.3 billion a year starting in 2016 in a bid to counter escalating oil sector costs. “We have been working actively with costs for several years and have seen this as a major development, but now we are turning it up a couple notches,” Mr. Lund said. “These are still Statoil’s highest investments ever, so this isn’t a defensive plan.” The state-controlled company is […]