Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) may close its Draugen oil field in the Norwegian Sea a decade earlier than in a prior assessment of the area’s potential lifespan because of rising costs and a slump in oil prices . Europe’s biggest oil company expects production in the field to extend until 2024 to 2027 after previously estimating a potential of as long as 2036, Odin Estensen, an asset manager at its Norway unit, said yesterday in an interview in Stavanger. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep these tail-end fields going,” he said. The cost of operations and upgrades has risen and “when you put the oil-price on top of that, the picture is clear: we’re under pressure,” Estensen said. Shell is among oil companies reining in spending as higher costs in the past decade eroded returns, delaying projects. Oil prices, down by about a third since June, […]