US Consortium Buys North England Gas Processor
North Sea Midstream Partners has bought Teesside Gas Processing Plant Ltd from a consortium of Deutsche Bank, private US equity investor MatlinPatterson, and Carval, a division of the Cargill Group.
NSMP was recently formed by ArcLight Capital Partners LLC of Boston, which announced the deal in a statement.
TGPP operates a 450-MMscfd gas plant at Seal Sands on Teesside, UK, capable of high levels of NGL extraction, the company said. The Teesside plant processes gas produced in the central North Sea and sent via the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) pipeline.
Local media reported the deal would secure the long-term future of jobs at the plant. “We’ve got a large on-going project [Breagh] employing local people, and we’ve got a new owner that is supportive and will continue to invest in the business,” said TGPP chief executive Andy Heppel.
The Breagh project will provide a major new source of UK gas for the next 20-25 years.
Heppel told media the plant was originally developed by a joint venture of Enron and ICI.
The plant, which has contracts with several oil majors, is currently working on a €535million (£450m) upgrade to land gas for RWE’s Breagh project, about 80 miles off Teesside in the Southern North Sea.
When the Breagh project becomes operational, the plant will process around 6% of the UK’s gas needs.