The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has given Shell consent to use the facilities at Knarr and Gaupe following a change of operatorship.
Shell is taking over the operatorship of Knarr and Gaupe from BG, and has as a result, applied for consent to use these facilities, even though consent for their use was originally granted to the previous operator.
Knarr is an oil field in the North Sea, around 50 kilometres north-east of Snorre. The field, which is in 410 metres of water, has been developed using subsea wells and a floating production unit, Petrojarl Knarr FPSO. Oil is loaded from the FPSO into tankers, while the gas is piped to St. Fergus in Scotland. BG received consent to use the production facility and seabed facilities on 3 November 2014. Production from the field began in March 2015.
Gaupe is an oil and gas field located close to the boundary with the UK shelf, around 12 kilometres south of Varg. The field, which is in 90 metres of water, has been developed using two subsea wells.
The well stream is taken to the Armada facility on the UK shelf. BG received consent to use the seabed facilities and pipelines on 15 February 2012. Production began in March of that year.