Maersk Oil Approved to Develop Large Culzean Field in UK North Sea

Maersk Oil says the Culzean field discovered in the UK North Sea is the largest found in a decade in the region. Illustration: Maersk Oil

COPENHAGEN, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Maersk Oil has received approval by the UK’s Oil & Gas Authority to develop the largest gas field discovered in the UK North Sea in more than a decade, the Danish oil company said on Monday.

The Culzean field is expected to produce enough gas to meet five percent of total UK demand at peak production in 2020/21.

Discovered in 2008, Maersk Oil and its co-venture partners, JX Nippon and BP Plc will invest around £3 billion ($4.63 billion) in the development.

Maersk Oil, a unit in Denmark’s shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, said the gas condensate field contains an estimated 250-300 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Production is expected to start in 2019 and continue for at least 13 years, with plateau production of 60,000-90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Maersk Oil said last week it would seek regulatory permission to shut its Janice installation, which produces around 7,000 barrels per day from three UK North Sea oilfields, due to falling oil prices.

($1 = 0.6481 pounds) (Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen; editing by Jason Neely)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.