COPENHAGEN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Maersk Oil has receivedapproval by the UK's Oil & Gas Authority to develop the largestgas field discovered in the UK North Sea in more than a decade,the Danish oil company said on Monday.
The Culzean field is expected to produce enough gas to meetfive percent of total UK demand at peak production in 2020/21.
Discovered in 2008, Maersk Oil and its co-venture partners,JX Nippon and BP Plc will invest around £3billion ($4.63 billion) in the development.
Maersk Oil, a unit in Denmark's shipping and oil group A.P.Moller-Maersk, said the gas condensate fieldcontains an estimated 250-300 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Production is expected to start in 2019 and continue for atleast 13 years, with plateau production of 60,000-90,000 barrelsof oil equivalent per day.
Maersk Oil said last week it would seek regulatorypermission to shut its Janice installation, which producesaround 7,000 barrels per day from three UK North Sea oilfields, due to falling oil prices.
($1 = 0.6481 pounds) (Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen; editing by Jason Neely)
BP (BP.)
