Reports said that safety authorities ordered a production shutdown at two Norwegian offshore platforms Thursday, sharply reducing flows from the world's third largest oil exporter, an official said. The fields' operators — state oil company Statoil ASA and the Norwegian branch of Royal Dutch Shell PLC — were likely to keep the fields running at least until they meet safety officials on Friday. Officials from the Petroleum Safety Authority, said the agency wrote to the companies to say it did not accept lifeboat standards at Statoil's roughly 110,000-barrel-per-day Snorre A platform and Norske Shell ASA's 140,000-barrel-per-day Draugen field.