Shell to decide on Ormen Lange subsea compression in 2016

STAVANGER, Norway (Reuters) - Shell plans to decide next year whether to resume installing subsea compressors at its giant Ormen Lange field offshore Norway, a company's senior executive said on Thursday, after stopping the project last year to save costs.

"We still expect in the course of 2016 that we will get to a point where we can see whether we can sanction a good development there or not," Mark Wildon, a vice-president at Shell Norway, told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference.

Shell postponed the project, an innovative development, last year after costs spiralled, but said at the time it could revisit plans in the first quarter of 2016.

The Ormen Lange gas field, which feeds the Langeled pipeline under the North Sea, is one of Britain's biggest sources of natural gas.

Shell's partners include Statoil, ExxonMobil and Denmark's DONG Energy.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, writing by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Gwladys Fouche)