Petrofac buys into gas scheme

If built, Gateway Storage will be one of the UK's largest salt cavern storage facilities

Offshore giant Petrofac has taken a 20% stake in a project to build a £600 million gas storage facility in salt caverns beneath the east Irish Sea.

Petrofac will also become technical project operator on the 1.5 billion m3 Gateway scheme and will be jointly responsible for developing the project ahead of a final investment decision next year.

The front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of the project is nearing completion and the focus will now turn to raising the required finance. Gateway Storage Company, the firm behind the project, said it would start offering storage services to the UK energy market in 2016.

George Grant, chairman of Gateway Storage, said: “This is the most advanced gas storage project in the UK that has not yet committed to construction, so we are delighted to have an organisation with the execution and operational track record of Petrofac to take the project forward through to financing and into construction.”

Petrofac Energy Developments’ managing director Rob Jewkes said: “With FEED activities largely complete, we are entering the project at this stage to bring confidence to the investor group that execution and delivery objectives for the complete facilities can be met.”

If built, Gateway Storage will be one of the UK’s largest salt cavern storage facilities and will add nearly 30% to the current gas storage capacity in the UK market. The project secured the  Department of Energy’s first ever storage licence in February 2010 after obtaining the main planning and environmental consents and permits in late 2008.