RE: Within 8 days1 Nov 2021 07:25
Islandmagee Gas Storage Project
The Company announced on 13 October 2021 that it has been informed by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) that it will issue the Environmental Consent Decision, Marine Licence, reviewed Abstraction Licence and Discharge Consent for the Islandmagee Gas Storage project (the "Project"). The issuance of these licences is subject to the Company's acceptance of certain conditions precedent as well its acceptance of ongoing monitoring obligations. Having reviewed these conditions, the Company is satisfied that it can successfully meet the conditions and ongoing obligations and has, therefore, informed DAERA of such acceptance. The Company now expects DAERA to issue the full marine licence within the next fortnight per the agreed timetable. The Company understands that there could possibly be a call for a judicial review once the award of the licence has been made. However, the Company is firmly of the opinion that such a legal challenge would have no merit and has, accordingly, procured third party legal advice and opinion which corroborates the Company's view.
The issuance of this full marine licence is an opportune time to undertake a full review of the best funding mechanism and the nature of our future participation in this project. The focus on the current gas supply crisis along with support from the National Infrastructure Bank for shovel ready projects warrants further evaluation of the various funding options as the UK economy progresses towards its Net Zero target. As reported previously, the Project, whilst currently focussed on the storage of natural gas, has the capability, subject to regulatory approvals, to store large volumes of hydrogen. As the UK economy progressively transitions from natural gas to hydrogen, large scale hydrogen storage will be critical for the success of this transition. The Company warmly welcomes the Northern Ireland's Department for Economy's energy transition report in which the vision is to be a world leader in hydrogen production and export. The report clearly recognises the value of large scale hydrogen storage, given that should hydrogen ultimately becomes the fuel of choice for the wider economy, it will have demand and supply patterns (typical seasonal variations) that are similar to those observed in the natural gas markets. The Company believes that lessons have to be learned from the failure to check price natural gas price volatility and one of the widely recognised mechanisms to mitigate against such price and supply volatility is to have adequate domestic storage capacity.
As the Company moves forward in its discussions with key project investors and stakeholders, announcements relating to the Project's Final Investment Decision (FID) will be made once those negotiations have been completed and a financing package has been formally agreed.
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