Scotland: Dart Announces First Electricity from Gas Sales
Australian explorer Dart Energy has said today that it has begun first production of electricity and sales from coalbed methane gas from its PEDL 133 licence in Scotland.
The electricity is produced from two pilot wells through a gas turbine generator which has a restriction of 100,000 scf/d to match the electricity transport capacity and will be exported to the local grid to provide electricity to the equivalent of 500 homes.
In a statement today, Dart said that it sees this first electricity production as "the next step in a vision to deliver Europe’s first commercial CBM project of scale," and marked a major milestone for the company at the field.
"Generation of electricity at PEDL133 is an important milestone for Dart Energy," Dart Energy International CEO John McGoldrick said. "It represents the company's first commercial sales, and continues the progression of our Airth Project towards full development and substantial revenue generation. We are pleased to be at the forefront of bringing on-line a new supply of domestic natural gas to the UK which currently relies heavily upon imported supplies."
Following on from this initial electricity production, the company is working towards the second phase of production from the PEDL 133 licence. In this phase, Dart will increase production from the project, with additional gas supply to be delivered from additional wells into the gas pipeline network. This additional gas will then be sold under a Gas Sales Agreement previously reached with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) at prevailing spot market prices. Under this agreement, Dart is expected to supply a total of 11 billion cubic feet of gas to SSE over a period of up to eight years.
To enact this second phase, Dart will be required to deploy associated surface infrastructure, which will include compression facilities and local pipeline connection. This work is expected to be completed in 2013.
Besides the electricity and gas production already planned from the field, Dart says it sees much more potential for the PEDL 133 field.
"Longer term, the first and second phase of the Airth project encompasses less than 20 per cent of the 2C resource within the project area, and thus there is considerable scope to increase the project over time, both in terms of size and gas sales," a Dart statement said today.