Integrated energy transition company EnergyPathways has presented a gas storage licence application to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), covering an offshore area in the UK’s East Irish Sea gas basin.
The area includes the company’s 100% owned Marram Gas Field, which forms part of its planned MESH [Marram Energy Storage Hub] project, designed to provide long-term storage of natural gas and green hydrogen.
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Located 11 miles from the Lancashire coast, northeast England, the project’s underground geo-storage capacity is estimated to be 50 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. This is equivalent to the size of the Rough facility in the North Sea, currently the UK’s largest gas storage facility.
According to the energy company, MESH aims to provide a secure and dependable supply of natural gas and green hydrogen for the UK market for at least 20 years, with a sufficient volume of energy to heat 2.2 million average UK homes over winter.
It added that the gas produced from MESH will also have a carbon footprint of approximately one-tenth of that of imported liquified natural gas (LNG).
Designed as a decarbonised and electrified zero-emission facility, MESH will be powered by the renewable wind farms of the UK Irish Sea region.
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By GlobalDataThe facility is surrounded by 7GW-8GW of existing and planned offshore wind power, near-to-late-life reusable gas pipelines and infrastructure, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.
EnergyPathways CEO Ben Clube commented in a statement: “With the UK having some of the lowest levels of gas storage of the world’s major economies, and it becoming increasingly dependent on LNG imports, we believe an expansion of the UK’s gas storage capacity will be vital for a dependable and secure energy supply.”
Clube added that the company is negotiating with engineering and energy companies on participation in the MESH development, pending a final investment decision.
In February, EnergyPathways signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Marram Gas Field, securing project support for subsea front-end and design engineering, procurement and offshore construction services.
The East Irish Sea has historically been dominated by the Morecambe Bay gas fields. It is owned by Spirit Energy, a joint venture between Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and Stadtwerke München (SWM), a German energy and infrastructure company.
