The National Petroleum Directorate, a government regulator, said preliminary production figures for July show an average daily production of 1.93 million barrels of oil, natural gas liquids and condensate, about 8 percent more than was produced in June. Around 80 percent of that production volume was crude oil. The NPD said oil production was 2 percent higher than what it expected for July, but 3.5 percent lower year-on-year. Technical problems at three fields — Draugen, Skuld and Valhall — were blamed for the decline, though NPD said oil production was still about 1 percent higher for the year than anticipated. Norway has more oil reserves than any other European country. Last year, it exported 1.19 million bpd worth of oil, with most of that headed to the British and Dutch economies. Total gas sales from Norway were about 282 billion cubic feet in July, around 7 percent more than […]