New BP North Sea Vorlich development approved

BP has received approval for a North Sea development which is expected to produce 30 million barrels of oil.

The oil giant said the Vorlich project - in the central North Sea - had been rubber stamped by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).

The £200m development is expected to come on stream in 2020.

BP North Sea regional president Ariel Flores said: "The Vorlich development further demonstrates BP's commitment to the North Sea."

Output for the field, which is 150 miles (241km) east of Aberdeen, is expected to be about 20,000 barrels a day at its peak.

Mr Flores said: "BP is modernising and transforming the way we work, with a focus on accelerating the pace of delivery of projects like Vorlich.

"Without compromising safety, we want to simplify our processes, reduce costs and improve project cycle time to increase the competitiveness of our North Sea business.

"This is increasingly important as competition for global investment funds gets stiffer.

"While not on the same scale as our huge Quad 204 and Clair Ridge projects, the Vorlich development provides another exciting addition to our refreshed North Sea portfolio."

Scott Robertson, Central North Sea area manager at the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), said: "The OGA has been actively involved throughout the Vorlich project and is pleased to approve this development.

"The field will make an important contribution to our Maximising Economic Recovery UK (MER UK) priority as a valuable tieback utilising existing infrastructure and by maximising value from the Greater Stella Area hub."

Mike Tholen, industry body Oil & Gas UK's upstream policy director, said: "The use of existing infrastructure will be increasingly important as industry looks to unlock small pools.

"Oil & Gas UK's recent Economic Report showed that these behaviours have the potential to add a generation of productive life to the basin.

"However, as our report warned, a continued supply chain squeeze could risk industry's ability to go after this prize, and focus must remain on bringing more major projects to delivery."

Earlier this week, energy company Total announced a major gas discovery off Shetland.

Initial tests at a site on the Glendronach prospect indicated there could be about one trillion cubic feet of gas which could be extracted.