TABJ - July 14 - Oil major BP has announced plans worth approximately £3 billion to re-develop the Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields to the west of the Shetland Islands—part of the North Sea oil fields.

The company says that having produced just shy of 400 million barrels from the area since production began in 1998, it believes a further 450 barrels of producible resources are still available. Plans put forward under the Quad 204 project will take production up to, and possibly beyond, 2035, and include replacing Schiehallion’s current floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a new ship, scheduled to arrive in 2015.

“We are committed to growing and maintaining a material, high-quality business there for the long term, BP’s group chief executive, Bob Dudley, said in a statement.

“We are pursuing a number of additional growth opportunities to support this strategy. For us, a key to this strategy is the need to maintain the integrity of our existing infrastructure; to look after our reservoirs and maximise recovery; and to deploy and develop the necessary capability.”

BP will also upgrade a number of other subsea facilities in the region in order to enhance its future development of the resources outlined. These are on track to begin production in 2016. The plans come despite concerns voiced by Oil&Gas UK about the £2 billion government levy on North Sea oil and gas detailed in this year’s budget, which may deliver a hefty blow to the approximate £12 billion in investment planned for resource extraction in the region.