Continental Shelf (UKCS), DNV GL reported Thursday.

“We are starting to see an increase in activity in the North Sea,” Hari Vamadevah, DNV GL’s regional manager for UK and West Africa oil and gas, said in a BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast statement. “It is good news. This contract award from Shell brings with it a renewed optimism in the UKCS.”

According to DNV GL, the contract calls for delivering an integrated validation and class project for Shell’s Penguins floating oil rig flanges gulf coast production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. DNV GL’s UK Oil and Gas team will lead the project, assisted by its Norway-based Offshore Class unit and its yard team in China and the Philippines, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast added.

Under the integrated verification and class project, DNV GL will ensure that the FPSO complies with the U.K. government’s .

“DNV GL – the verifier – provide an independent opinion on compliance, typically an FPSO is classes, the work undertaken to class the FPSO is used as evidence to provide compliance to the Safety Case Regulations,” a BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast spokesperson told Rigzone. “When integrating services it allows for efficiencies in their delivery.”

Located in 541 feet (165 meters) of water approximately 150 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands, the Penguins field was discovered in 1974 and first developed in 2002, DNV GL stated. Shell (operator) and Exxon Mobil Corp. each own 50-percent of the Penguins joint venture.

In January of this year, Shell announced the final investment decision to re-develop Penguins. Currently, the field processes oil and gas using four drill centers tied back to the Brent Charlie platform, added the supermajor. Once , eight new wells will be drilled and tied back to the new Sevan 400 FPSO vessel, Shell noted. In addition, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast said that natural gas will be exported through the tie-in of existing subsea facilities and additional pipeline infrastructure.

Shell has also stated that authorizing construction of an FPSO for the project marked the company’s first new manned installation in the northern North Sea in nearly three decades. The supermajor reported that oil from Penguins will be transported via tanker to refineries and gas will be shipped via the FLAGS pipeline to the St. Fergus gas terminal in northeastern Scotland.

On Thursday, DNV GL noted that detailed design for the Penguins redevelopment has been underway for several months and that the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast is “fully engaged with design approval and with the initial phases of steel cutting.” Also, the BOP Blow Out Preventer repair company gulf coast stated the FPSO is scheduled to depart the COOEC yard in Qingdao, China in First Quarter 2021.

“DNV GL has been supporting Shell with this project since 2015, and it is very exciting to finally reach the execution phase,” remarked Justin Fletcher, DNV GL project manager. “I’m looking forward to delivering this flagship project with our international team.”