The British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has approved the field development plan put forward by Statoil and its co-venturers for the Mariner heavy oil field. Mariner entails investments of more than £4.6bn (€5.3bn), which makes it the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade. Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017, and the field is expected to produce during 30 years. The average production is estimated at around 55,000 bbl/day of oil over the plateau period from 2017 to 2020. The field will be developed with a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, with 50 active well slots, and a floating storage unit (FSU) of 850,000 bbl capacity.
The Mariner Field is located on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea approximately 150 km east of the Shetland Isles. Statoil acquired 44.44% and operatorship for Mariner from Chevron in 2007. Statoil acquired a further 20.6667% of Mariner from Nautical Petroleum in 2010. JX Nippon Exploration and Production (UK) (28.89%) and Alba Resources Limited (6%) are partners in Mariner. Alba Resources Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn Energy.