The Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) has approved an investment of around $3.35 billion to redevelop the Tyra gas field, Denmark’s largest gas field in the North Sea. The announcement follows the Danish Parliament’s approval to implement legislation to secure the investment.

The Tyra field is operated by Maersk Oil on behalf of the DUC, a partnership between A.P. Moller — Maersk (31.2 percent), Shell (36.8 percent), Nordsøfonden (20 percent) and Chevron (12 percent).

The underlying chalk reservoir has subsided, causing the platforms to sink by around 5 meters over the last 30 years. This has reduced the gap between the sea and the platform decks.

The announcement represents one of the largest oil and gas project investments made in the Danish North Sea and will enable Tyra to operate for at least 25 years. At peak production, the redeveloped field will provide enough gas to supply 1.5 million Danish homes.

The investment cost for the modification to existing facilities and construction of new facilities (CAPEX) is estimated at around $2.71 billion. The cost to remove and decommission current facilities (ABEX) is around $640 million.

Tyra processes 90 percent of the nation’s gas production. The new infrastructure is expected to enable operators to pursue new gas projects in the northern part of the North Sea, where the most recent development, Tyra Southeast, first delivered gas in 2015.

The redeveloped Tyra is expected to deliver approximately 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at peak, and it is estimated that the redevelopment can enable the production of more than 200 million barrels of oil equivalent. Approximately 2/3 of the production is expected to be gas and 1/3 to be oil.

The redevelopment of Tyra is enabled by the legislation implemented by the Danish Parliament in late November.

The Tyra field will be shut-in for the redevelopment in November 2019, and production is expected to restart in July 2022.