http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/energy-britain-northsea-idUSL5E8LM6A820121022

 

The Fram field in the North Sea will be on stream within three years, Royal Dutch/Shell said, calling it one of its most significant UK developments of the past decade and one that will provide 5 percent of Britain's gas at peak production.

 

Shell, which shares the field with U.S.-based Exxon Mobil , said it will be producing 35,000 barrels of oil and gas equivalent (boe) a day at its peak, about two thirds of which will be gas. That will be about 2 percent of Britain's combined oil and gas output.

The announcement of development go-ahead came after Shell won approval from the UK Department of Energy and Climate change.

The UK North Sea is in decline as an oil and gas source but Shell has decided to install new infrastructure there with a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and a pipeline spur that has been designed to tie in fields that are currently stranded, said Glen Cayley, Shell's vice president, technical, Europe.

The Fram field is located 220 kilometres east of Aberdeen in Scotland and 50 kilometres west of the line separating the UK North Sea from Norway's in waters approximately 100 metres deep.

The development plan contains eight production wells, one production water re-injection (PWRI) well, two subsea drill centres and a subsea flowline bundle, all producing to an FPSO vessel.