Norway's oil production during March 2018 suffered due to technical problems on some fields, according to a Thursday report by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

Preliminary production figures for March 2018 show an average daily production of 1 901 000 barrels of oil, NGL and condensate, which is a decrease of 46 000 barrels per day compared to February, the petroleum regulator said on Thursday.

Total gas sales were 10.9 billion Sm3 (GSm3), which is an increase of 0.8 GSM3 from the previous month.

Average daily liquids production in March was: 1 519 000 barrels of oil, 352 000 barrels of NGL and 29 000 barrels of condensate.

Oil production was approximately 5 percent lower than the NPD's forecast, and about 3 percent below the forecast this year. The main reasons that production in March was below forecast is technical problems on some fields. However, the NPD did not specify what fields in particular experienced these problems.

The total petroleum production for the first three months in 2018 is about 60.3 million Sm3 oil equivalents (MSm3 o.e.), broken down as follows: about 22.5 MSm3 o.e. of oil, about 5.6 MSm3 o.e. of NGL and condensate and about 32.2 MSm3 o.e. of gas for sale.

The total volume is 2.1 MSm3 o.e. lower than in 2017.