UK issues licence for £600 million undersea gas storage
16 Feb 2010
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued yesterday a licence to Gateway Storage Company Ltd (Gateway) to build a major undersea natural gas storage facility in the east Irish Sea, off England's western coast, about 25km southwest of Burrow-in-Furness.
It is the first licence under the government's new regime to encourage the construction of more gas storage facilities in the country and could increase the storage capacity by 30 per cent, a government statement said.
The project involves creation of 20 new salt caverns about 750 metres beneath the seabed through a leaching process, building of associated pipeline system and an onshore gas compression station in Burrow-in-Furness.
The new storage facility will have a cumulative capacity of around 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas. The total cost of the project is estimated at £600 million ($940 million).
The offshore gas storage is expected to provide a significant boost to the energy security of the country and will help to meet the strategic energy policy objectives of the UK government.
''The successful performance of the UK's gas system, even during the severely cold weather seen this winter, shows that we have one of the most resilient gas systems in the world,'' said Lord Hunt, minister for energy and climate change.
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