January 11, 2010, 05:37 AM EST
By Ben Farey and Mathew Carr
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said its Ormen Lange natural-gas field, Europes third-largest, halted output this weekend and remains closed because of bad weather.
Production at Ormen Lange has been shut as a result of continued bad weather in Norway and Shell is working to resume operations, David Williams, a company spokesman, said today by telephone from The Hague. Shell operates the Norwegian field.
Ormen Lange, the main source of gas for the Langeled pipeline from Norway, is expected to meet as much as 20 percent of Britains gas demand for the next 40 years, according to shareholder Statoil ASA. Shell expects the field to reach maximum output of 70 million cubic meters a day this year.
Langeled, the worlds longest sub-sea link, carries Ormen Lange gas from the Nyhamna terminal in northern Norway to the Sleipner platform in the North Sea and then on to the U.K., Belgium, France or Germany.
Statoil holds 28.91 percent of the Ormen Lange development. Its partners include Shell with 17.04 percent and Norways Petoro AS with 36.48 percent. Dong Energy A/S holds 10.34 percent and Exxon Mobil Corp. has 7.23 percent.
–Editors: Amanda Jordan, Will Kennedy
To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Farey in London at +44-20-7673-2369 or [email protected]; Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rob Verdonck at +44-20-3216-4149 or [email protected].
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.