NI gas storage project nears next stage

Developers of a gas storage project in Northern Ireland have announced that all end-of-well reports have been completed and initial results are “encouraging”, as they prepare to move the project on to the monetisation phase.

Gas storage firm InfraStrata said the £3.8 million programme of work towards the Islandmagee storage project, which began with the drilling of the well in June this year, will be completed in November 2015, providing data to support the monetisation of the project.

“All the end-of-well reports have been finalised and the initial results from the laboratory in Germany on the cores are encouraging and the parameters are now being used by the surface engineering team to provide an update on the facility design and cost estimates,” the company confirmed.

Commenting on the announcement, InfraStrata chief executive Andrew Hindle said: “We are very pleased that the programme of works is on schedule to be completed on time and we expect to provide a further update on completion of the work during November. Plans for commencing the monetisation process are also underway as anticipated.”

InfraStrata was granted planning permission for a natural gas storage facility at Islandmagee in October 2012. The plan is to create seven caverns, capable of storing up to a total of 500 million cubic metres of gas in Permian salt beds.

The programme is being supported by a €2.5 million grant from the European Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility. There are five stages to the programme agreed with the EC, of which three have now been successfully completed. InfraStrata said there is also a potential for EU funding to help with the cost of building its Islandmagee facility.

By the end of this year approximately £10 million will have been invested in the project.