Norwegian oil and gas exploration will continue to rebound amid higher crude prices, a survey by the national statistics agency (SSB) showed on Monday, although the overall pace of investment by the industry was slower than most analysts had expected. While exploration for new resources and in field development plans is expected to rise significantly this year and next, the investments at fields that are already in operation will decline, according to the closely watched quarterly report. Investment in exploration and concept studies, a key indicator of spending on anything from drilling rigs to seismic data, was forecast to rise to 33.3 billion crowns in 2019 from 25 billion in 2018. Overall 2018 investment plans were cut by some 2.1 percent since February, and are now seen amounting to 156.5 billion Norwegian crowns ($19.23 billion), an increase of 1.4 percent over 2017. While initial forecasts for […]