Statoil is Norway’s No. 1 oil and gas producer. Crude prices that have almost halved in the past year are unsustainable at current levels as cuts to investments and postponement of projects will lead to a decline in supply growth, according to Norway’s biggest oil company. “We think that the price level now is too low,” Eirik Waerness, chief economist and vice-president at Statoil ASA, said in an interview in Singapore on Thursday. “Some people will stop exploring for oil. With oil prices around $50, you get a stimulus for demand growth. That will tighten the market.” Crude is expected to climb to $80 a barrel in 2018 and increase gradually after that as existing supplies get used up, he said. Oil slumped more than 44 percent in the past year as U.S. stockpiles expanded at a time when OPEC producers bolstered output to retain market share, exacerbating a […]