Oil giants Shell and Exxon are looking to buy a floating production vessel off a subsidiary of Danish group AP Moller Maersk.
The pair, partners on the central North Sea Curlew field, operated by Shell, are in talks with Maersk FPSOs to acquire the Maersk Curlew floating production vessel, which today also marked a safety milestone.
The vessel, which has been producing oil from the field, 136 miles east of Aberdeen, since 1997, has operated for five years without a lost time incident.
Shell today confirmed that it and Exxon had been in talks with Maersk FPSOs and had agreed to start a process, which if successful, would lead to the transfer of ownership of the Maersk Curlew to the supermajors at the end of the first quarter of 2013.
The vessel is due back on stream by the end of this month after being shut down since early June following a minor gas leak.
The leak, on its gas-compressor system, on June 1 was resolved quickly but was subject to a HSE prohibition notice on the compressor.
Maersk FPSOs said it decided to shut in the converted tanker, which had 62 people on board at the time.
The vessel has a daily production capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil.