Maersk Oil, the energy division of shipper A.P. Moller-Maersk, said on Nov. 3 it remains optimistic it will secure a tax deal by the end of the year allowing it to continue production at the Tyra gas field in the Danish part of the North Sea.

Maersk Oil said in April it would cease production permanently at Tyra, which is Denmark's largest gas field, on Oct. 1, 2018, if an economically viable solution for continued operations was not identified in 2016.

More than 90% of the country's gas production is processed through a facility serving the field. The Tyra field is operated by Maersk Oil on behalf of the Danish Underground Consortium, a partnership between Maersk, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS.A), Denmark's Nordsofonden, and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX).

"I remain quite optimistic that a solution will be found," Maersk Oil's CEO Gretchen Watkins told Reuters in an interview.

She compared the situation to 2015 when Maersk Oil managed to agree to a deal with the British government to develop the Culzean gas field. "The industry and the government came together there and found a mutually beneficial solution that allows us to have a project that will provide an acceptable return for Maersk Oil but also of great benefit to the U.K.," she said.

In September, Danish energy and climate minister Lars Christian Lilleholt told Reuters that the government is determined to find an economically viable solution for Maersk, but the minority government is currently bogged down in discussions of the 2017 budget.

Offshore