Dart Signs CBM Supply Contract in Scotland

Dart Energy has signed the five-year deal worth up to £300 million to supply Scotia Gas Networks with methane that it expects to extract from its coal bed methane acreage (CBM) near Airth in Stirlingshire.

Scotia, which supplies gas to Scotland and southern England, is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy and two Canadian pension funds.

The deal, which aims to start producing gas from next year, is the culmination of seven years of exploration by Stirling-based Composite Energy, which owned the licence until it was taken over by Dart earlier this year. Dart, a global specialist in CBM.

Ed Cox, a gas specialist at consultancy ICIS Heren, said the 1.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of CBM reserves at the Airth acreage and the maximum predicted extraction rate of close to one million cubic metres per day were the equivalent of a moderate gas field offshore.

Dart chief executive Simon Potter recently said: “The gas sales agreement put in place... comes a month after the first [proven] reserves were independently assessed and means we expect to see first cash flows in the UK in early 2013.”

Sandy Wito, fuel procurement manager at SSE, said: “The link-up with Dart Energy provides an innovative opportunity to make use of onshore gas supplies that might otherwise be stranded. Alongside new contracts with European partners via interconnectors, it will help SSE further diversify its approach to fuel procurement.

Source: Herald Scotland