(Reuters) -Shell said on Tuesday it has restarted production at the Penguins oil field in the UK North Sea, with a new floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility.
The field’s export route, which previously went through the Brent Charlie platform that ceased production in 2021 and is being decommissioned, will shift to the new FPSO that reduces operational emissions by 30% and extends the field’s life by up to 20 years, Shell said in a statement.
“Today, the UK relies on imports to meet much of its demand for oil and gas,” said Zoe Yujnovich, Shell’s integrated gas and upstream director.
“The Penguins field is a source of the secure domestic energy production people need today, and the FPSO is a demonstration of our investment in competitive projects that create more value with less emissions.”
The oil major added that peak production from Penguins is estimated at around 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) and currently has an estimated discovered recoverable resource volume of about 100 million boe.
Penguins will also produce enough gas to heat around 700,000 UK homes per year, Shell said.
(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Susan Fenton and Eileen Soreng)
