Still a big-spender – for a while

Almost 40 years after exploration began, Norwegian firms are busy developing two huge gasfields—one of which is the second-largest discovered in the country's offshore, while the other will allow Norway to join the world's LNG producers. Investments in the two projects will total about $16.9bn—most of which is due to be spent in 2005 and 2006. But looking further ahead, work seems patchy, Martin Quinlan writes