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Norwegians get go-ahead for North Sea oil development

£4,6bn plans for development on the North Sea’s Mariner oil field have been approved by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Norwegian firm Statoil and its co-venturers will now work on the field, and expect to start production from 2017.

Statoil expect the field to produce for 30 years, and estimate the average production rate to be around 55,000 barrels per day.

President and CEO of the Statoil, Helge Lund, said the North Sea is a core area for the firm.

An operations center will be established in Aberdeen, with an estimated 700 full-time jobs created.

Richard Podd, director in PwC’s Newcastle office, said: “This demonstrates how the combination of technology and the right regulatory regime can unlock investment in the UK’s oil and gas assets.

“The same kind of thinking needs to be applied to unconventional assets to provide the UK with long term energy security as the North Sea declines.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .