Centrica Gains from UK Tolmount Field

UK Centrica Storage (CSL) has been awarded a contract by the Tolmount joint venture and infrastructure partners – Premier Oil, Dana Petroleum and Humber Gathering System – worth at least £120mn ($153mn), to process gas from the Tolmount field in the Southern North Sea. The contract will extend the life of CSL’s gas terminal at Easington, Yorkshire, until at least 2030, creating hundreds of jobs during the construction phase and securing 80 over the lifetime of the contract, the Centrica subsidiary said August 20.

Modifications will be made to the terminal so that it can receive and process the gas from the Tolmount field, which will arrive through a new gas pipeline. CSL will start to process the gas in winter 2020, when the field is scheduled to come on stream. The field is scheduled to produce gas for 10 to 15 years.

Construction at Easington will include upgrades to compression facilities, and improvements to the control room to allow the minimal facilities platform at the Tolmount field to be controlled from Easington. Centrica Storage boss Greg McKenna said: “This contract is a significant achievement for CSL. The terminal at Easington has a long and successful history of receiving and processing gas from third parties, and this reinforces CSL’s position as a strategic gas processing hub for many years to come."

The terminal was originally built to handle gas from the Rough field, which then became a storage facility for decades. Now it has ceased performing that role too as the cost of upgrades was more than future likely earnings.

Easington is also the delivery point for gas from the Norwegian field Ormen Lange, which comes ashore at a different point. On most days, the latter is the largest entry point for gas flowing into the UK gas system. At 10am local time (9am GMT) August 20, this Easington-Langeled entry point accounted for 25% of all gas entering the UK's National Grid gas transmission system.