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Shell Approves Another Project in the North Sea

  • Anglo-Dutch oil major will bring two wells in Fram on stream
  • Fram was initially considered uneconomical to develop
Access To BG Group Plc's Offshore Armada Gas And Condensate Platform Ahead Of Their Merger With Royal Dutch Shell Plc

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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Royal Dutch Shell Plc approved its second North Sea project in six months, greenlighting a natural gas field that it considered uneconomical to produce from six years ago.

The Anglo-Dutch major, along with partner Exxon Mobil Corp., plans to produce from two wells in the Fram field in the central North Sea by 2020. Deep cost cuts following crude’s decline and connecting smaller oil and gas pools to bigger projects are allowing Shell and other drillers to squeeze more out of an aging North Sea.