BP said on Thursday that approval has been received from the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to proceed with the £200 million Vorlich development in the central North Sea.

The development will target 30 million barrels of oil equivalent, expected to produce 20,000 barrels gross of oil equivalent a day at peak.

The project is part of a programme of North Sea subsea “tie-back” developments that seek to access important new production from fields located near to established infrastructure.

“Vorlich, a two-well development approximately 241 kilometres east of Aberdeen, will be tied back to the Ithaca Energy-operated FPF-1 floating production facility, which lies at the centre of Greater Stella Area production hub,” said BP.

“Ithaca has a 34% interest in Vorlich. The field is expected to come onstream in 2020.”

BP North Sea regional president Ariel Flores said: “BP is modernising and transforming the way we work, with a focus on accelerating the pace of delivery of projects like Vorlich.

“Without compromising safety, we want to simplify our processes, reduce costs and improve project cycle time to increase the competitiveness of our North Sea business.

“This is increasingly important as competition for global investment funds gets stiffer.

“While not on the same scale as our huge Quad 204 and Clair Ridge projects, the Vorlich development provides another exciting addition to our refreshed North Sea portfolio and further demonstrates BP’s commitment to the North Sea.”