First oil produced from Lancaster field near Shetland

The Lancaster field, to the west of Shetland, has produced its first oil, according to operator Hurricane Energy.

The company is pioneering drilling in "naturally fractured basement" rock, where disruptions such as earthquakes have created pools of trapped oil and gas along seabed ridges.

It said that on Tuesday the Aoka Mizu floating production and storage ship completed a 72-hour production test.

This reached the target flow from two wells of 20,000 barrels of oil per day.

Full production will take longer to ramp up, following the test.

Dr Robert Trice, chief executive of Hurricane, said: "Lancaster is the UK's first producing fractured basement field and the fact that Hurricane has delivered this industry milestone on time and within budget is an incredible achievement.

"We have successfully achieved our start-up data acquisition objectives and commenced the evaluation of this material.

"Up to 12 months of stable production will be required in order to provide a clear view of the reservoir and enable us to plan for associated full field development scenarios."