Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given Shell the consent to use the facilities at Knarr and Gaupe fields offshore Norway due to a change of operatorship following Shell’s acquisition of BG Group.
To remind, Shell completed the acquisition of BG Group back in February in a deal described the largest oil and gas acquisition of the decade.
As a result, A/S Norske Shell is now taking over as operator of the Knarr and Gaupe fields from BG Norge.
PSA said that Shell applied for consent to use the facilities on July 3, even though the consent for their use was originally granted to the previous operator.
Gaupe is an oil and gas field located close to the boundary with the UK shelf, around 12 kilometers south of Varg. The field, which is in 90 meters of water, has been developed using two subsea wells. The well stream is taken to the Armada field on the UK shelf. BG received consent to use the seabed facilities and pipelines in February 2012. Production began in March of that year.
Knarr is an oil field in the North Sea, around 50 kilometers north-east of Snorre. The field, which is in 410 meters of water, has been developed using subsea wells and a floating production unit, the 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 FPSO and seabed facilities in November 2014. Production from the field began in March 2015.