Gas to wire31 May 2019 10:55
The OGA support it, the UK govt support it and there is tremendous interest and appetite from Siemens for extending the life of North sea assets as it fits their investment strategy perfectly. This global company did not link up with Nuog and Mfdevco for nothing. Once announced this will be a game changer here.....
"The UK Southern North Sea (SNS) has the perfect conditions for the development of Gas to Wire for the UK. Fields and infrastructure are reaching end of economic life and require expensive decommissioning, natural gas is stranded and looking for an alternative route to shore, and due to new offshore renewables such a route may already exist.
With some fields reaching the end of their economic production and shutting in, other fields in a cluster have to soak up the additional cost of distribution, which in turn may make them un-economic, or they may be cut-off altogether. This causes a cascade effect where part of a cluster stops producing and soon the rest follows suit. As a result, the burden of decommissioning also comes in clusters. This poses a problem for operators, who have to fund the decommissioning programme, and the government, who suffers the tax offsets agreed to ensure decommissioning actually took place. On top of this, a greater volume of gas becomes stranded by economics than by natural decline, which is counter to maximising the use of resources and degrades security of supply.
Gas to wire (GTW) , where natural gas is combusted offshore, on the platform, by power turbines to produce electricity for transmission to shore, changes the game. Infrastructure can be re-used and converted to host power generation equipment. Power generation can be decentralised and can soak up the remaining reserves by using the natural gas at source. The route to shore changes from a gas pipeline to a relatively cheaper electrical cable. Best of all, existing wind farm electrical infrastructure is already in place."
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