Gas Storage Overview

The UK is the Europe’s largest gas market, yet its storage capacity is just 4% of its annual consumption. This is compared to countries such as France and Germany, which have a storage capacity of over 20%.

This marked contrast is due to the fact that Britain has long enjoyed abundant supplies of natural gas from offshore fields in the UK Continental Shelf. Supplies were initially discovered in the southern North Fields, and later supplemented by gas production in the northern North Sea and gas fields in the Irish Sea. Such rich reserves accommodate the UK’s ‘swing’ requirement – that is, the two-fold increase in gas consumption that occurs during the winter months. Until now, this has obviated the need for significant levels of gas storage capacity in the UK.

However, forecasters have concluded that the gradual decline of gas reserves will lead to Britain importing over 50% of its gas by 2010. A number of infrastructure projects are under construction or are planned to import gas from Continental Europe, Norway and from further afield via undersea pipeline or LNG tanker. As the declining North Sea gas fields’ supplies become increasingly replaced by imported gas, the ‘swing’ availability will need to be replaced. Additionally, security of supply will become an increasingly important issue.

Gas storage is our solution to these problems, and some of our oil and gas production sites provide a ready-made infrastructure for gas storage.

The principle is simple. As described in our Gas Production section, gas sits above oil deposits in the permeable geological formations that characterise oil fields. The gas is trapped below a ‘cap’ of impermeable material, and the drawing-off of gas leaves a void which makes for an ideal gas storage location.

We are utilising proven techniques to pump gas back into these reservoirs at some of our existing locations. The close proximity of our fields to the gas grid means that gas can be imported from the grid at periods of low demand (the summer months) and stored underground. The gas can then be returned to the grid during the periods of high demand in the winter.

One of our major gas storage developments has taken place at Humbly Grove in Hampshire, where gas is stored within the existing oilfield. The facility required the construction of a 27 km pipeline to link the oilfield to the national gas transmission system (NTS) at Barton Stacey near Andover. An additional processing plant has been constructed, together with the installation of compression equipment to pump the gas into the gas store from the NTS and to return the gas back to the NTS.

The Humbly Grove gas store, which started operations on November 4th 2005, will also re-pressurise the oil reservoir and so extend the life of the field from less than 10 years to around 20 years. In doing so, it would maintain its contribution to the local and regional economies.

We are evaluating some of our other onshore sites for gas storage potential. These include Albury Phase 1 & 2.

We are aware that safety concerns are attached to gas storage operations, and we adhere to the strictest guidelines with regards to this and all our other operations. Please see our Environment and Safety section for more.

Gas Storage Presentation

A presentation to the Scottish Oil Club highlights some of the gas storage issues facing the UK  - download file here

For our other Star Energy products, see Power generation, Gas, and Oil.

For maps of Star Energy’s operating bases, see Locations.