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* 2019 investment seen at 184.5 bln crowns, up 16 pct
* More competitive industry helping to lift activity
* NOG says companies must focus on development costs(Adds detail, quotes, bullet points)
By Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Oil and gas investment in Norway isexpected to grow for a second year in a row in 2019 but willfall back between 2020 and 2023, an industry lobby group said onMonday.
Western Europe's largest oil producer has seen a recovery inoil industry activity thanks to higher crude prices, after aslump in 2014-2016.
Investment in Norway's oil industry is estimated to rise by16 percent year-on-year to 184.5 billion crowns ($21.5 billion),the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said. It previouslyexpected 2019 investment of 153 billion crowns.
"It is good news that activity is so high on the Norwegiancontinental shelf. We believe this is because of the significantrestructuring the industry has done in recent years, which hasincreased competitiveness," the lobby said in a statement.
But it said investment would start to fall after 2019 to182.5 billion crowns in 2020, 168 billion crowns in 2021, 156.5billions crowns in 2022 and 141.5 billion crowns in 2023.
The group said its forecast for investment was based on asurvey of companies that was completed before October when oilwas trading at above $70 a barrel. Since then prices had droppedand were trading at $58 a barrel on Monday.
NOG head Karl Eirik Schjoett-Pedersen said the price fallwas not expected to have a major impact. "We think the projectsare quite robust, because the companies have been focused tomake them economic at even lower oil prices," he said.
Norway's Equinor said its new projects had anaverage break-even price of $21 a barrel, while Aker BPsaid it would not invest in projects with break-evenprice higher than $30 a barrel.
"I'm very concerned about the need to focus on the costs,"Schjoett-Pedersen said.
NOG said exploration spending was expected to rise to 30billion crowns in 2019 from 26 billion in 2018, although thenumber of wells being drilled was not expected to change fromlast year's 56.
($1 = 8.3304 Norwegian crowns)(Writing by Gwladys FoucheEditing by Edmund Blair)
