Fram field to provide five percent of nation's gas

LONDON (Reuters) - The North Sea's Fram field will be on stream within three years and will be one of the most significant UK developments of the past decade providing 5 percent of Britain's gas at peak production, operator Royal Dutch/Shell said on Monday.

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.

Shell was announcing the go-ahead for Fram's development after it won approval from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. The UK Fram field is unrelated to an existing Norwegian North Sea development of the same name.

The UK North Sea is in decline as an oil and gas source but Shell has decided to install new infrastructure at Fram 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.

"Fram is an example of a project that will slow the decline," said Cayley, noting the project was also made viable by the use of sophisticated 3D seismic techniques that see around salt pillars into a complex structure.

Energy Minister John Hayes said the news "shows that by working with industry and by creating the right fiscal environment, our oil supplies will continue to be an asset to Britain for years to come."

Cayley said the decision to go ahead was not affected by any of the changes to the UK tax regime of recent years.

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. The oil will be exported via tanker, and gas will be exported via a spur to the existing Shell-Esso Fulmar Gas Line 18 kilometres away and by the Shell-Esso Gas and Liquids system.

Fram, which is unrelated to a Norwegian North Sea field of the same name, is expected to have a field life of 20-30 years, Cayley said.

Although Shell is the operator of Fram, Exxon's Esso Exploration & Production UK Ltd has the majority equity share with 68 percent against Shell's 32.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-sea-fram-field-5-percent-uks-gas-092351845--finance.html

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