Denmark’s Maersk Oil has completed the expansion of Qatar’s Al-Shaheen oilfield and is expected to complete the testing of new platforms by the end of March.

The company announced the successful installation of the last of 15 new platforms and other offshore facilities, as part of its Al-Shaheen Field development Plan, which is is working on with state-owned Qatar Petroleum.

The estimated $6.2 billion project was originally aimed at increasing production capacity at the offshore field to 525,000 barrels a day (b/d) from about 240,000 b/d.

Current production, however, stands at 300,000 b/d up 60,000 b/d, the company said in a statement.

Qatar has limited actual production to meet quotas set by oil producers’ cartel, Opec.

Maersk Oil agreed a drilling field development plan in 2008. The development plan includes the installation of new platforms and associated facilities and the drilling of more than 160 oil production and water injection wells, of which 131 have already been drilled (MEED 21:2:08).

The hook-up and commissioning of the new platforms is under way, connecting facilities with 300 kilometres of pipelines and 50km of subsea cables and is expected to be completed by the end of March.

The Al-Shaheen field is located some 90km north of Doha, straddling the north field gas deposits with estimated oil reserves of 15 billion barrels. Discovered in the mid-1970s by operators drilling appraisal wells in the North field, Al-Shaheen was passed over for development until 1992, when Maersk signed its current deal with QP.