Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Norway, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, said crude production in August decreased 7.3 percent from a month earlier.

Output averaged 2.111 million barrels a day, compared with 2.277 million barrels a day in July, according to a statement posted today on the Web site of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, which oversees the nation's oil industry. The figures for August are preliminary.

Norway pumped about 319,000 barrels a day of condensate and natural-gas liquids in August, the directorate estimated. That compares with 329,000 barrels a day the month before.

Oil output is declining at Norway's aging North Sea fields, prompting the development of gas deposits such as Ormen Lange in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea Snohvit field.

Norway lags behind Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran in crude-oil exports.

Following is a table of final data for Norway's oil and gas production in July. All figures are in standard cubic meters of oil equivalent, where 1 standard cubic meter of oil equivalent equals 1,000 standard cubic meters of gas. One standard cubic meter of oil equals 6.29 barrels.

Total oil and gas output in cubic meters     20.0 million
- Crude oil production in cubic meters       11.2 million
- Gas production in cubic meters              7.2 billion
- NGL and condensate in cubic meters          1.6 million

To contact the reporter on this story: Bunny Nooryani in Oslo at bnooryani@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 14, 2007 06:06 EDT