Maersk considering shutdown of North Sea gas production

The Danish oil and shipping giant Maersk has said it could shut down nearly all of its gas production in the North Sea within years thanks to the low oil prices, local media reported on Monday.

The company was cited by local newspaper The Copenhagen Post as saying that it is considering a complete closure by 2018 if a more financially viable solution is not found for North Sea production this year.

"Together with our partners in Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) we are now evaluating long-term economically viable solutions for the recovery of the remaining resources," Martin Rune Pedersen, the managing director of Maersk Oil Denmark, said in a press release.

"As part of this, we will consider the terms under which a rebuilding of the facilities could take place," Pedersen added.

The concern is the infrastructure at the Tyra East and West fields in the North Sea, according to the newspaper. The fields have been in production for over 30 years.

DUC has invested over 1 billion Danish kroner(150 million U.S. dollars) in infrastructure in the Tyra fields over the past 15 years.

Tyra is Denmark's largest gas field and it produces about 90 percent of all Danish gas.