ConocoPhillips to Tap North Sea Gas Fields Shuttered in 1998

ConocoPhillips and its partners plan to reopen a number of gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea as higher prices for the fuel and new subsea technologies make abandoned reservoirs economic again.

Plans submitted to Norway’s Energy Ministry outline a return to the Albuskjell, Vest Ekofisk and Tommeliten Gamma deposits, which were discovered in the 1970s and shuttered in the late 1990s. Their redevelopment could unlock more than 90 million barrels of oil equivalent, mostly in the form of natural gas and condensate, at a cost of 20 billion kroner ($2.1 billion), the proposals show.

“There was no economic justification ...