Offshore staff
LONDON -- Britain’s government has granted ENI a license for its proposed new gas storage facility at the Deborah field in the southern North Sea, close to the Bacton reception terminal on the English east coast.
The license represents an important stage in ENI’s work to establish whether there is commercial demand for Deborah to be converted for gas storage. It will pave the way for the company to request further approvals for the facility.
Domenico Dispenza, ENI’s COO of Gas & Power, said: “The Deborah gas storage facility will have a working capacity of 4.6 bcm, more than doubling the UK’s gas storage capacity, and enhancing security of supply for the UK and for North West Europe.”
“ENI is pleased that the major regulatory requirements – the agreement for a lease from the Crown Estate and the Gas Storage Licence from DECC – are now in place…All being well, ENI hopes to move towards a Final Investment Decision by 1Q 2011, leading to first commercial operation in 2015.”
The Department of Energy and Climate Change says this is the first agreement since the mid-1980s for a large scale UK depleted offshore field to be used as a gas storage facility.
10/22/2010
