Norway's oil output misses forecasts in April

OSLO, May 15 (Reuters) - Norway's oil production remainedbelow forecasts in April as several fields struggled withproduction issues, while gas output exceeded expectations afteroutages were resolved, the petroleum directorate said onWednesday. Norway, the world's seventh-biggest oil exporter, produced1.50 million barrels of oil per day in April, up from 1.45million a month earlier, but short of the government's forecastof 1.52 million. Output was hit as fields like BP's Skarv and Valhalland Statoil's Oseberg suffered technical issues, thepetroleum directorate (NPD) said in a statement. For the first four months of the year, oil output was 1.2percent below target, however, performance is expected improveas most of the technical issues have been resolved. Gas production, meanwhile, beat forecasts by over 10 percentas Norway resolved several gas outages, the NPD said. Norway, Western Europe's biggest gas supplier, sold 9.1billion cubic metres of gas in April, down from 9.5 billion inMarch, but well above the 8.2 billion target. Oil production is expected to rise in May, before a summerdip due to regular maintenance, while gas production is expectedto fall steadily over the coming months due to weak demand inthe low season.