Page 9 - EurOil Week 45 2021

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Licence secured for Islandmagee

gas storage project

UK UK shipyard Harland & Wolff has secured a “vital” to ensuring security of supply and sup-
licence and approvals for the Islandmagee gas porting the UK’s transition to net zero. The com-
The Islandmagee storage project, the company announced on pany has now secured an environmental consent
project is expected to November 8. decision, a full marine licence, an abstraction
store 500mn cubic The development comes amid soaring licence and discharge consent from the govern-
metres of gas. gas and power prices across Europe that ment, it said.
have prompted policymakers to look at ways “We have worked tirelessly over a two-year
of improving energy security, including an period to ensure that our proposals meet and
expansion in storage capacity. Conditions on exceed legislative requirements, taking on board
the market have also led to criticism of the the many comments made by the local com-
decision to close Rough, the UK’s then-largest munity and other stakeholders,” John Wood,
gas storage facility, in 2017. Harland & Wolff’s CEO, said in a statement last
The Islandmagee project is expected to be month. “A lot has changed within the global
capable of storing around 500mn cubic metres gas markets over the last two years. The recent
of gas, equivalent to over 25% of the UK’s cur- energy supply crisis has raised awareness of how
rent capacity. It consists of a Permian salt cavern vulnerable we are to gas and power markets vol-
in County Antrim in Northern Ireland, which is atility. Everybody now understands just how
also the site of the region’s main gas-fired power important gas storage is for the country’s security
plant, as well as the strategic electrical intercon- of supply and to help stabilise gas prices for the
nection point to Great Britain and the termi- end-consumer.”
nating point of the existing Scotland-Northern Citing a report from Oxford Analytica, the
Ireland gas pipeline. shipyard estimated that 400 direct jobs would
All this makes it an ideal location for gas stor- be created during the facility’s construction, as
age, Harland & Wolff said. well as between 800 and 1,200 indirect jobs. It is
Harland & Wolff secured a green light for expected to generate GBP7mn ($9.5mn) for the
the project in October, describing the facility as local economy. ™

INVESTMENT

Marubeni to divest UK North Sea

unit to Ithaca

JAPAN JAPANESE trading house Marubeni has struck in the UK North Sea to BP. The UK major had
a deal to divest its UK North Sea unit Moguk to earlier tried to sell its holding in the area to UK
The sale of Moguk will Ithaca Energy, it announced on November 4. operator Premier Oil, but the deal fell through
mark Marubeni’s exit While it did not state the sales price, after Premier merged with Chrysaor.
from the UK North Sea. Marubeni said the transaction was due to be Sources told Bloomberg that there was no
finalised by January next year. The announce- certainty that a deal would be struck. The trans-
ment comes after Reuters reported in Septem- action would also run counter to the company’s
ber that Ithaca had agreed to acquire Marubeni’s strategy of scaling back its UK North Sea pres-
assets. But Ithaca, owned by Israel’s Delek, has ence over the last decade
not commented on the matter. According to Bloomberg, JX has also received
The sale of Moguk will mark Marubeni’s exit bids for some of its other assets, including posi-
from the UK North Sea – a region that other Jap- tions at the Mariner and Culzean fields off the
anese players such as Idemitsu Kosan and Itochu UK.
Corp have also withdrawn from in recent years. BP’s UK North Sea divestments over the
Sumitomo and Osaka Gas meanwhile agreed to years include the sale of a package of assets to
divest their 49.5% stake in the Snorre oil project Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (ADNOC)
off Norway to Inpex. for $1.1bn in 2012. It then divested the Forties
Meanwhile, Japan’s JX Nippon Exploration Pipeline System to Ineos in 2017 and sold off the
and Production are reported to be in talks to sell Shearwater field to Royal Dutch Shell earlier this
its position at the Andrew Area oil and gas fields year. ™

Week 45 11•November•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9