UK to Build Offshore Gas Storage Facility

Energy utility Centrica has announced plans to develop the UK's first offshore gas storage facility for over 25 years in partnership with Gaz de France and First Oil.

The group is working on a development study to convert the Bains gas field in the East Irish Sea into a dedicated seasonal storage facility, one fifth the size of Rough, the UK's largest gas storage site.

According to Centrica, the project will convert the existing, partly depleted Bains field into a storage facility with a dedicated twenty mile pipeline to the Barrow onshore terminal.

A new unmanned platform and additional compression facilities will also need to be built, says Centrica.

Pre-development studies are expected to run until early 2009, before a final investment decision is made to develop the project.

By Ozge Ibrahim