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Whitehall gives nod to UK gas trio



By Upstream staff 

The UK government has given the nod for the development of three new gas fields - Caravel, Shamrock and Kelvin, Trade & Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said today.

Shell will operate Caravel, Shamrock and Kelvin in partnership with ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. The trio should add 340 billion cubic feet of gas to UK reserves at a time when they are in rapid decline.

"North Sea production remains critical to the UK's energy needs," Darling told a conference in Aberdeen.

Caravel is in the southern North Sea and was discovered in 2002. It will be developed through two production wells which will pump gas to the Bacton terminal in east England via existing Shell-operated infrastructure.

First production is scheduled for December 2007. The field is operated by Shell, with ExxonMobil as co-licensee.

Shell will also operate the nearby Shamrock field which will be tied to Caravel.

The ConocoPhillips-operated Kelvin field - where other licensees are Gaz de France and Tullow Oil, will be tied back to ConocoPhillips' Murdoch field and send its gas to the Theddlethorpe Gas Terminal. First production is also scheduled for December.

Despite new fields coming into production, UK gas output is in steady decline as its older fields become exhausted.

The UK hopes to turn its dried up old gas and oil fields into potentially profitable carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities to bury carbon dioxide under the sea, as part of the global effort to combat climate change.

Last week the government announced a competition to build CCS plants in the UK as it tries to get a head start on developing commercially-viable CCS facilities.

"We're seeing record interest in licensing rounds... But at the same time the industry knows it is a maturing one. With that maturity comes opportunity," Darling said in a statement.

"The North Sea industry with its skills, ingenuity and the capacity of depleted fields has the opportunity to make a compelling case as a world leader in this new technology," he said.


Thursday, 29 March, 2007, 11:20 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 29 March, 2007, 11:20 GMT

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