The Easington Gas Terminal is one of six main

gas terminal Natural-gas processing is a range of industrial processes designed to purify raw natural gas by removing impurities, contaminants and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons to produce what is known as ''pipeline quality'' dry natural gas. Natural gas ...

s in the UK, and is situated on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

coast at

Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire Easington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in the area known as Holderness. A coastal settlement, it is situated between the Humber estuary and the North Sea at the south-eastern corner of the county ...

and Dimlington. The other main gas terminals are at

St Fergus, Aberdeenshire ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

;

Bacton, Norfolk Bacton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is on the Norfolk coast, some south-east of Cromer, north-west of Great Yarmouth and north of Norwich. Besides the village of Bacton, the parish includes the nearby settlements of Ba ...

;

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

;

Theddlethorpe Theddlethorpe is a village in East Lindsey, Lincolnshire, England, that is made up of 2 parishes: * Theddlethorpe St Helen * Theddlethorpe All Saints Theddlethorpe may also refer to Theddlethorpe railway station Theddlethorpe is a village in East ...

, Lincolnshire and

Rampside gas terminal Rampside Gas Terminal is a gas terminal situated in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria on the Irish Sea coast. It connects to gas fields in Morecambe Bay. It is situated adjacent to the former Roosecote Power Station. History Production started in 19 ...

, Barrow, Cumbria. The whole site consists of four plants: two run by

Perenco Perenco is an independent Anglo-French oil and gas company with a headquarters in London and Paris. It conducts exploration and production activities in 16 countries around the globe (the North Sea, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democra ...

, one by

Centrica Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is the largest su ...

and one by

Gassco Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates of natural gas pipes transporting annually of 100 billion cubic meter (bcm) of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf to Continental Europe and Great Britain. 15% of the total ...

. The Easington Gas Terminals are protected by

Ministry of Defence Police The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The MDP's primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services to designated hig ...

officers and are provided with resources by the

Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) is the United Kingdom government authority which provides protective security advice to businesses and organisations across the national infrastructure. Their advice aims to reduce ...

History

BP Easington Terminal opened in March 1967. This was the first time that North Sea Gas had been brought ashore in the UK from the West Sole field. In 1980

British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...

purchased the field Rough and in 1983 began conversion to a storage field. BP Dimlington opened in October 1988. BP's Ravenspurn North field was added in 1990 and the Johnston field was added in 1994. The Easington Catchment Area was added in 2000, and the Juno development in 2003. Up to 20% of the winter peak demand for gas is exported from Easington via Feeder 9 through the

Humber Gas Tunnel The Humber Gas Tunnel is a natural gas-carrying pipeline that runs underneath the Humber Estuary between Paull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and Goxhill in Lincolnshire, England. The project was started in April 2018, and the pipeline was use ...

Discovery of gas in the North Sea

Britain's first oil rig, the

Sea Gem ''Sea Gem'' was the first British jack-up oil rig, known for its collapse off the coast of Lincolnshire on 27 December 1965, after two of its steel support legs buckled and the rig capsized, resulting in 13 fatalities. Background In ...

, first discovered gas in the North Sea on 20 August 1965. It was not a large enough field, but at the time it was not even known that there was a large amount of gas under the North Sea. Unfortunately the rig sank in December later that year, when it capsized. The

Forties Forties can mean: *1940s, the years 1940–1949 *40s, the years 40-49 AD *The years 40-49 of any century - see List of decades *Long Forties, area in the North Sea *The Forties shipping forecast area (roughly corresponding to the Long Forties) *Fo ...

and Brent oilfields were discovered later in 1970 and 1971 respectively.

Langeled pipeline

Since October 2006, gas has been brought into the UK direct from the Norwegian

Sleipner gas field Oil from the Sleipner field. The Sleipner gas field is a natural gas field in the block 15/9 of the North Sea, about west of Stavanger, Norway. Two parts of the field are in production, Sleipner West (proven in 1974), and Sleipner East (1981) ...

via the

Langeled pipeline The Langeled pipeline (originally known as Britpipe) is an underwater gas pipeline transporting Norwegian natural gas to the United Kingdom. Before the completion of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, it was the longest subsea pipeline in the world. ...

, the world's longest subsea pipeline before the completion of the Nord Stream pipeline, owned by

which itself is owned by the Kingdom of Norway.

Operation

The sites are run by and gas is produced by Perenco (after BP sold its operations to them in 2012), Gassco and Centrica Storage Ltd. Gas can be transferred to and from the Centrica Storage plant at Easington dependent on grid demand. The control of the Perenco sites takes place at the Dimlington site, and conditioning of the gas also takes place there. The function that is at the Perenco Easington site is the connection to the

National Transmission System The United Kingdom's National Transmission System (NTS) is the network of gas pipelines that supply gas to about forty power stations and large industrial users from natural gas terminals situated on the coast, and to gas distribution companies th ...

. Gas flows from the Easington terminal via a 24-inch diameter, pipeline known as Feeder No 1 across the Humber to Totley near Sheffield. Perenco Easington used to compress gas as well, but from 2007–9, the construction of the £125 million Onshore Compression and Terminal Integration Project (OCTIP) situated all compression and processing from the gas fields at the Dimlington site. As part of the facility, two RB211-GT61 gas turbines, built by Rolls-Royce Energy Systems in

Mount Vernon, Ohio Mount Vernon is a city in Knox County, Ohio, United States. It is located northeast of Columbus. The population was 16,990 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Knox County. History The community was platted in 1805, and named after Mo ...

, were installed in a £12.7 million contract.

Centrica Rough Terminal

The

Rough (facility) Rough is a natural gas storage facility under the North Sea off the east coast of England. It is capable of storing 100 billion cubic feet of gas, nearly double the storage capacities in operation in Great Britain in 2021. First opened in 198 ...

is a partially depleted offshore gas field that was converted for storage by British Gas. It is currently operated by Centrica Storage Ltd (a subsidiary of Centrica). The Rough Terminal also processes gas for the newly developed York field. The Rough Terminal used to receive gas from the

Amethyst gasfield Amethyst is a natural gas field in the Southern North Sea, about east of the Yorkshire coast. Gas lies in a Permian sandstone reservoir around below the seabed. The gasfield is operated by BP. History The gasfield was discovered in 1972 a ...

which was until 1988 owned by

Britoil Britoil plc was originally a privatised British oil company operating in the North Sea. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The company was acquired by BP in 1988, becoming a brand of it.Nyhamna Nyhamna is a small peninsula on the northeast side of the island of Gossa in Aukra Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located along the Julsundet strait, about northeast of the village of Varhaugvika and northeast of the vil ...

in Norway.

Perenco Easington

The gas is collected from the Hyde, Hoton, Newsham and West Sole

natural gas field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

s. It can process up to 300 m cubic feet of gas per day. A gas turbine power generator is used to compress the gas.

Perenco Dimlington

Dimlington
is the larger site of the four. The

natural gas condensate Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natur ...

is transferred to the Dimlington terminal. Dimlington also processes dry gas from the (former) Cleeton, Ravenspurn South, Ravenspurn North, Johnston, the

Easington Catchment Area The Easington Catchment Area (known as ECA) is a group of natural gas producing fields in the Southern North Sea. They lie in UK Blocks 42 and 47 between east of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. The fields are operated by Perenco. Developm ...

(Neptune and Mercury), and the Juno development (Whittle, Wollaston, Minerva and Apollo) gas fields. The Dimlington site has the control room for all of Perenco's gas fields that ship gas to the Easington site. Dimlington can handle up to 950m cubic feet of gas per day.

Fire risk

All four sites are a considerable fire hazard, so both have large water reservoirs for fire fighting containing about one million and three million litres of water each.

Dimlington gas fields

Cleeton

Cleeton and Ravenspurn South form part of the ''Villages Complex''. Both were discovered in 1976. Gas production began in April 1987. Production stopped in 1999. Now used as a hub for the Easington Catchment Area. Named after the scientist,

Claud E. Cleeton Claud Edwin Cleeton (December 11, 1907 – April 16, 1997) was an American physicist notable for his groundbreaking work, with Neal H. Williams, on the microwave spectroscopy of ammonia. This was the groundwork that led to the eventual developmen ...

Ravenspurn South

Discovered in April 1983, off the East Riding of Yorkshire coast. Gas production began in October 1989. Gas via Cleeton to Dimlington. Named after

Ravenspurn Ravenspurn was a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, which was lost due to coastal erosion, one of more than 30 along the Holderness Coast which have been lost to the North Sea since the 19th century. The town was located close to the ...

, the former coastal town. Owned and operated by Perenco.

Ravenspurn North

Discovered in October 1984 and developed in April 1988 by Hamilton Brothers. First gas produced in October 1989, and BP took over the operatorship of the field from BHP on 12 January 1998. Gas via Cleeton to Dimlington. Operated by Perenco and owned mostly by them, with smaller parts owned by Centrica Resources Ltd and E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd.

Johnston

Operated by

E.ON Ruhrgas Ruhrgas AG (original name: Aktiengesellschaft für Kohleverwertung; later: E.ON Ruhrgas) was the largest natural gas transportation and trading company based in Essen, Germany. The company was founded in 1926 and it finally ceased to exist on 2 May ...

, and previously to them, Caledonia EU, and also by Consort EU Ltd. Discovered in April 1990. Gas first produced in October 1994. Pipeline to Dimlington via Ravenspurn North and Cleeton. Owned 50% by

Dana Petroleum Dana Petroleum plc is an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Its activities are focused on the North Sea, Africa and The Middle East. It is a subsidiary of the Korea National Oil Corporation and is a forme ...

(E&P) Ltd and E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd.

Babbage

Discovered in 1989 with the first gas being brought ashore in August 2010. Gas will be transported via West Sole to Dimlington. Owned 40% by

(E&P) Ltd, 47% by E.ON Ruhrgas UK EU Ltd and 13% by Centrica Resources Ltd. Named after the mathematician,

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

Easington Catchment Area The Easington Catchment Area (known as ECA) is a group of natural gas producing fields in the Southern North Sea. They lie in UK Blocks 42 and 47 between east of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. The fields are operated by Perenco. Developm ...

Consists of Neptune and Mercury fields. Operated by

BG Group BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and ...

. Transported to Dimlington via BP's Cleeton. Mercury discovered in February 1983 and production started in November 1999. Named after the planet

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. 73% owned by BG Group. Neptune discovered in November 1985 and production started in November 1999. Named after the planet

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

. 79% owned by BG Group.

Juno development

These are the most recent of the Dimlington gas fields. Named after

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

, the Roman goddess. BG Group operates the Minerva, Apollo and Artemis fields, and owns 65% of these fields. Production started in 2003. Artemis was discovered in August 1974, and named after

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

the Greek hunter goddess. Apollo was discovered in July 1987, named after

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

the Greek sungod, brother of Artemis. Minerva was discovered in January 1969, named after the Roman goddess

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...

. BP operates the Whittle and Wollaston fields. They are 30% owned by BG Group. Production started in 2002. Wollaston was discovered in April 1989, and named after

William Hyde Wollaston William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingo ...

, the Norfolk chemist. Whittle was discovered in July 1990, and named after

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for ...

Easington gas fields

These fields are around off the East Riding of Yorkshire coast. These fields are connected to the national grid by BP and Rough Terminals. Some of these were one of the 'Villages' gas fields; named after villages lost to the sea along the Holderness coast. These villages include: Cleeton, Dimlington, Hoton, Hyde, Newsham and Ravenspurn.

West Sole

Discovered in December 1965, east of the Humber. It is a faulted dome whose maximum dimensions are about wide, lying at a depth of . The reservoir comprises about of Permian Rotliegendes sandstone, and the gas has a high methane content and low nitrogen (1.3%). Gas first produced in March 1967. It had initial recoverable reserves of 61 billion m³. Owned and operated by BP until 2012. Acquired by Perenco 2012

Hyde

Discovered in May 1982. Gas first produced in August 1993. Was owned 55% by BP and 45% by Statoil. BP took control in January 1997, in exchange for its Jupiter gas field.

Newsham

Discovered in October 1989. Production began March 1996. Enters the West Sole pipeline. Owned and operated by BP.

Hoton

Discovered in February 1977. Gas first produced in December 2001. Owned and operated by BP. Named after Hoton, one of the East Riding of Yorkshire lost villages that fell into the sea due to coastal erosion.

Amethyst East and West

Amethyst East discovered in October 1972 and Amethyst West in April 1970. Owned 59.5% by BP, 24% by BG Group, 9% by Centrica, and 7.5% by Murphy. Amethyst East began in October 1990 and Amethyst West in July 1992. Control of the platform is entirely from Dimlington and therefore operated by BP. Comprises the

. Acquired by Perenco 2012

Rough

Discovered in May 1968. It had initial recoverable reserves of 14 billion m³. Gas production began in 1975, and it was bought by British Gas in 1980. In 1983, they decided to convert it into gas storage. The gas storage started February 1985. As a depleted gas field, it is used as a storage facility, for essentially the whole of the UK, giving four days worth of gas. Originally owned by BG Storage Ltd (BGSL), who were bought by

Dynegy Dynegy Inc. is an electric company based in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It owns and operates a number of power stations in the U.S., all of which are natural gas-fueled or coal-fueled. Dynegy was acquired by Vistra Corp on April 9, 20 ...

Europe Ltd in November 2001 for £421 million. BGSL became known as Dynegy Storage Ltd, based in

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

. This company was bought by Centrica on 14 November 2002 for £304 million. Centrica was essentially buying the Easington plant. To operate the field Centrica has to comply with a set of undertakings laid down by DECC and Ofgem due to its unique position in the UK gas market.

York

Owned and operated by Centrica. Gas back to Centrica Rough Terminal via new pipeline.

Helvellyn

Discovered in February 1985 with the first gas coming on stream in 2004. Operated by

ATP Oil and Gas ATP Oil & Gas Corporation was a Houston, Texas based company that develops and produces oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. It specialized in developing reserves. ATP traded on the Pink Sheets under symbol ATPAQ (it pr ...

. Owned 50% by ATP Oil & Gas (UK) Ltd and First Oil Expro Ltd. Gas back to Easington via the Amethyst field. Named after

Helvellyn Helvellyn (; possible meaning: ''pale yellow moorland'') is a mountain in the English Lake District, the highest point of the Helvellyn range, a north–south line of mountains to the north of Ambleside, between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ulls ...

in Cumbria.

Rose

Discovered in March 1998. Owned and operated by Centrica with the gas pumped back to Easington via the Amethyst field. The operation started in 2004 and was plugged and abandoned in 2015.

References

{{reflist

External links

Centrica Storage

Centrica's purchase of the plant at Ofgem

World War Two bomb found in March 2008
1967 establishments in England Buildings and structures in the East Riding of Yorkshire Economy of the East Riding of Yorkshire Energy infrastructure completed in 1967 Holderness Natural gas infrastructure in the United Kingdom Natural gas plants Natural gas terminals North Sea energy Science and technology in the East Riding of Yorkshire

History

Discovery of gas in the North Sea

Langeled pipeline

Operation

Centrica Rough Terminal

Perenco Easington

Perenco Dimlington

Fire risk

Dimlington gas fields

Cleeton

Ravenspurn South

Ravenspurn North

Johnston

Babbage

Easington Catchment Area The Easington Catchment Area (known as ECA) is a group of natural gas producing fields in the Southern North Sea. They lie in UK Blocks 42 and 47 between east of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast. The fields are operated by Perenco. Developm ...

Juno development

Easington gas fields

West Sole

Hyde

Newsham

Hoton

Amethyst East and West

Rough

York

Helvellyn

Rose

See also

References

External links