Up to 4,000 new UK jobs should be supported by a new project operated by GDF Suez extracting shallow water gas from a field under the Southern part of the North Sea.

The £1.4bn Cygnus project is to be undertaken in partnership with utilities firms Bayerngas and Centrica, and follows the largest gas discovery in the North Sea for 25 years. The field should eventually account for 5% of gas used in Britain.

Bayerngas, Centrica and GDF signed a field development plan (FDP) yesterday (6 August) at a ceremony hosted by energy and climate change minister Ed Davey in London, the latest in a series of ‘business summits’ coinciding with the Olympics.

Over 1,200 local direct jobs will be created due to £337m worth of investment in the UK, with the first gas being produced in 2015. Further indirect jobs should also be secured in the UK, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) notes.

Business secretary Vince Cable says: “The oil & gas industry’s immense contribution to our skills base, industrial capacity and strength as an exporter are pivotal as we rebalance our economy. Today’s summit underlines the government’s commitment to making the UK a great place for energy firms to do business, develop new technologies, and recruit the best technicians and engineers.”

Other investments and announcements at the event include a £60m investment by BP, creating an International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM), which will create 25 new academic posts and nearly 200 PhD and post-doctoral positions.

Italian chemical producer Versalis will also be investing in its Grangemouth, Scotland site, while Oxfordshire geosciences company Neftex expects to recruit up to 50 new graduate staff having won several international contracts recently.