Supermajor Shell has restarted production at the Penguins field in the UK North Sea with a new cylindrical FPSO facility and export plan. The previous export route for the field was via the Brent Charlie platform which ceased production in 2021 and is being decommissioned. Oil production will now be transported by tankers to refineries outside of the UK. Natural gas will flow through an existing pipeline to the St. Fergus gas terminal in north-east Scotland.
Peak production is estimated at around 45,000 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 redevelopment of the Penguins field has involved drilling additional wells, which are tied back to the new FPSO. The field is in 165 m 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.
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.”
The 32,000-ton Penguins FPSO is operated by Shell UK Ltd. and is owned 50% by Shell and 50% by NEO Energy. The FPSO was built by Sevan and is the first new Shell-operated facility in the UK North Sea in more than 20 years.
It is a compact facility with a cylindrical hull design, providing more efficiency and flexibility. It measures 117 m from the bottom of the keel to the top of the flare stack and has a flareless system which recycles vapor back into the tanks and reduces emissions.
As announced in December 2024, Shell UK Ltd. and Equinor UK Ltd. will combine their UK offshore oil and gas assets and expertise to form a new company which will be the UK North Sea’s biggest independent producer. Once the deal is complete, the new independent producer will be jointly owned by Equinor (50%) and Shell (50%). The joint venture will take on Shell’s equity interests in Penguins.
The Penguins field originally came on stream in early 2003 producing oil and gas through nine subsea wells located on four drill centers.
In 2018, Shell made the final investment decision to redevelop the field based on a new FPSO—the cylindrical Sevan 400—to be built in China. Following construction completion in 2022, the FPSO was brought to Aibel’s shipyard in Haugesund, Norway, for commissioning.
