NI Storage Project Shortlists Contractors

InfraStrata, the UK-listed developer of a planned gas storage site at Islandmagee in Northern Ireland, has started tendering the main construction contract.

It issued the invitation to tender (ITT) package December 21 in order to appoint an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, and said it has shortlisted six firms whose expressions of interest in the work have been evaluated. They are: WSP, SNC-Lavalin (both Canadian), Italy's Saipem, US firm Fluor, Petrofac, and Costain (both UK-based).

As InfraStrata previously stated, project works have been split into phase 1 (two caverns) and phase 2 (six caverns) for a total of eight caverns - and so the contract is likely to be awarded in two stages. It said the deadline for the six potential EPC contractors to reply to the ITT is February 28 2019. 

InfraStrata's CEO, John Wood, said: "Selecting an EPC contractor will be an important step on our road to final investment decision (FID) by the end of 1H 2019." Full development however is expected to depend on receiving EU or government grants towards the cost, and that process is bound up with Brexit. (Artist's impression of Islandmagee project courtesy of InfraStrata)