UK's Bacton Still 'Strategic' 50 Years On
Bacton this month marks its 50th anniversary as a beach terminal for North Sea gas, Britain’s national gas and electricity transmission system operator National Grid (NGrid) said July 25.
Although not the first such terminal for North Sea gas, its Bacton terminal on the Norfolk coast remains the entry point for more than a third of Britain’s gas supply, handling some 100mn m3/d in the winter, nowadays not all UK-produced.
Since it started operating in July 1968, Bacton has opened the door to North Sea gas and more recently supplies from mainland Europe - via two interconnectors with Belgium (IUK) and Netherlands (BBL). NGrid’s Bacton terminal now covers 180 acres. It adjoins seaward terminals operated by Shell and Perenco from which treated gas flows into the NGrid terminal and then at 70 times atmospheric pressure (70 bar) into NGrid’s national transmission system. The terminal is of such strategic national importance that there is a ring main in place which can be used to bypass the terminal in an emergency.
NGrid says it is now also looking at the role its gas network could play in a low-carbon energy future by using it to move pure hydrogen, and blends of gas and renewable biogas, around the UK. Its director of gas transmission Phil Sheppard said: “This is a landmark month for us. Fifty years ago, Bacton opened to start taking the first flows from the North Sea gas fields as Britain started the process of converting from manufactured ‘town gas’ to natural gas.” Conversion of domestic cookers and appliances was required, as ‘pure’ North Sea gas had a higher energy value than ‘town gas’ which was manufactured from coal – a process that lasted from the mid-1960s until 1977.
“North Sea gas will continue to support our heating and economy for many years to come,” added Sheppard: “We are very excited to explore with our customers and stakeholders how our network can support decarbonisation by greening the gas we carry, ensuring that we hit our carbon targets at the lowest overall cost to consumers.”
Bacton is not the UK’s first shore-based gas terminal. Gas from the BP-operated West Sole Field was brought ashore at Easington in Yorkshire in March 1967, now also a NGrid-run terminal. In 1964, the UK became the world’s first importer of Algerian LNG at its Canvey Island terminal near London – now no longer used for LNG; in 2005 a new LNG import terminal was opened by NGrid at Grain not far away.
The first gas brought ashore at Bacton 50 years ago was from Shell’s Leman field, now Perenco-operated.
First gas was produced from the Dutch onshore giant field Groningen in 1963, while Norway didn't begin landing gas ashore from its offshore Ekofisk field until 1971. However Russia, Italy and Romania all produced gas in Europe for many decades prior to the first North Sea gas; this spring Gazprom marked 50 years of supplies to Austria, its first western European market, and extended its supply contract to OMV there by 12 years until 2040.