Green Light For £4bn Investment In 140m Barrel Oil Field Development

EnQuest, the largest UK independent oil company in the UK North Sea, has given its go-ahead for a £4bn investment in the 140m barrel oil field Kraken development.

The development is set to generate billions of revenue for taxpayers and to support an estimated 20,000 jobs during the project's construction period and an average of approximately 1,000 operational jobs a year over the course of its 25 year life.

The development has been approved by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), this is the largest investment announced in the UK North Sea this year and one of the largest UK industrial investments for 2013.

EnQuest is the operator of Kraken and will develop the project on behalf of itself and its partners. The project will be EnQuest's sixth production hub in the UK North Sea. The development has two separate heavy oil fields, both of which will benefit from heavy oil allowances, which the Government has provided support for in order to stimulate investment in the UK North Sea.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne said: "This is a big investment that will create jobs and boost the British economic plan. It is also evidence that our efforts to create a competitive tax regime that gets the most oil and gas out of the North Sea are working."

EnQuest CEO, Amjad Bseisu, said: "Companies like EnQuest are the future of the North Sea; it is only by combining our skills and expertise with fiscal incentives, such as heavy oil allowances, that really substantial projects like Kraken are possible. Kraken is a transformational project for EnQuest and we are delighted to be able to proceed with it; working with the Government and our partners to maximise the extraction of approximately 140 million barrels of oil in this field, over its 25 year long life."

(CD/JP)