Shell starts up new facility in UK North Sea, restoring production from the Penguins field

Shell has restarted production at the Penguins field in the UK North Sea with a modern floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility (Shell 50%, operator; NEO Energy 50%). The previous export route for this field was via the Brent Charlie platform, which ceased production in 2021 and is being decommissioned.

Peak production is estimated at around 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and currently has an estimated discovered recoverable resource volume of approximately 100 million boe. Although primarily oil production, Penguins will also produce enough gas to heat around 700,000 UK homes per year.

The new FPSO will have around 30% lower operational emissions compared with Brent Charlie and is expected to extend the life of this important field by up to 20 years.

“Today, the UK relies on imports to meet much of its demand for oil and gas,” said Zoë 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.”

Although oil will be transported by tanker to refineries outside of the UK, these include ones that supply refined products like petrol and diesel back to the UK because of its limited refining capacity.

Natural gas will be transported through the existing pipeline to the St Fergus gas terminal in the north-east of Scotland, which supplies the UK’s national gas network.

The redevelopment of the Penguins field has involved drilling additional wells, which are tied back to the new FPSO. The field is in 165 metres (541 feet) of water depth, around 150 miles north-east of the Shetland Islands. Discovered in 1974, the field previously produced oil and gas between 2003 and 2021.