Sam Laidlaw, Centrica’s Chief Executive, has outlined proposals for a new gas storage facility in the East Irish Sea.

Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, has announced that it is to create an offshore gas storage facility in the East Irish Sea – the first such facility in the UK for 25 years.

The company has proposed that the current Bains gas field will be converted into the storage facility, which will be roughly one fifth the size of the largest gas storage site in the UK. It will be ready in time for the winter of 2011/12 and will have a maximum storage capacity of 20 billion cubic feet.
 
To create the facility, Centrica will work with partners Gaz de France, which provides 76% of France’s population with natural gas, and First Oil, the UK’s largest privately-owned company producing gas and oil in the North Sea.  
 
Sam Laidlaw, Centrica’s Chief Executive, commented on the importance of the facility: “[The] UK is becoming increasingly reliant on imported gas, and flexibility from North Sea fields is declining in the coming years. Investing in much-needed storage facilities, which will boost this country’s security of supply, forms part of Centrica’s long-term programme of investing in a range of gas, power and renewable projects to supply our British Gas customers.”

The proposal will also increase the UK’s level of storage capacity, which is currently at its lowest amongst other EU countries at around 5% of its annual demand.