Shell to develop North Sea Fram gas field

The Shearwater platform will be connected to the Fram field

Oil company Shell has given the final go-ahead to develop the Fram gas field in the North Sea.

The field, 100 miles east of Aberdeen, is expected to produce about 41 million cubic feet of gas a day.

It will be connected using subsea infrastructure to the neighbouring Shearwater platform.

Steve Phimister, Shell's vice president for upstream in the UK and Ireland, said reducing development costs had allowed investment in new projects.

He said: "With our strong record of operational excellence and project execution, we will look to invest in further projects as we work to grow our business in the North Sea."

In January, Shell announced hundreds of jobs would be created during the construction of a vessel which will be used to redevelop the Penguins oil and gas field off Shetland.