Project Profile
Location: County Antrim, Larne area, Ireland
Injection capability: 12 mcm per day of gas
Withdrawal capability: 22 mcm of gas per day
Storage capacity: 500 mcm
The Islandmagee Gas Storage Project, located in County Antrim in Larne area of Ireland, is a proposed 500 million cubic metres gas storage facility that will make a significant contribution to the security of gas supplies for the whole island of Ireland. The facility, when complete, will store enough gas to satisfy Northern Ireland’s demand for around 60 days. Additionally, the salt cavity gas storage provides much-needed flexibility when compared to other storage methods. The facility can switch from injection to withdrawal quickly to cater for short-term spikes in demand such as a cold spell or a period of low wind generation which increases the load on gas fired generation. Strong transmission infrastructure is already in place to link the facility to all demand locations. Gas from the facility can feed the Ireland onshore network via the South-North pipeline and via the Scotland to Northern Ireland pipeline and through the existing subsea interconnectors.
Gas will be stored in seven caverns within a layer of Permian-age salt, greater than 200m thick, located almost a mile beneath Larne Lough in Co Antrim. Data acquired shows that the Permian salt at this location is particularly suited to natural gas storage. The Larne area is the only location in Ireland where suitable Permian-aged salt exists. The proposed site is ideally located close to the sea and already possesses the two main supporting infrastructural requirements for a gas storage facility. Seven storage caverns, each approximately 80m in diameter and 160m in height are proposed at Islandmagee. The facility expects to have an injection capability of 12 million cubic metres per day of gas and a withdrawal capability of 22 million cubic metres of gas per day. The estimated timescale for the project is approximately seven years, with the first cavern becoming operational after five years.
Site preparation work on the first borehole, is due to begin in late 2012 with drilling planned, subject to confirmation on regulatory framework for the project, for the first half of 2013. Samples of the Permian salt, required to finalise the design of the caverns to support the consenting process for the marine aspects of the project, will be obtained from the borehole. Marine consents required for the project include: Water Order consent, Abstraction License and a Marine Construction License. Applications will be submitted with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency shortly. InfraStrata\'s partner in the project is Moyle Energy Investments Limited, a subsidiary of Mutual Energy Limited, the owner of the Scotland to Northern Ireland gas pipeline.
InfraStrata has concluded a grant agreement with the European Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for 50%, up to a maximum of €4.024 million (US$ 4.4), of the costs associated with the Front End Engineering & Design (\'FEED\') for its Islandmagee gas storage project under development in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. (July, 2016)
InfraStrata repaid the loan (US$ 2.04 million) and agreed an amendment to the accompanying option under the Convertible Loan Facility Agreement with Baron Oil with respect to the Islandmagee gas storage project. Baron had an accompanying option to convert the loan balance into a 15% equity in Islandmagee, which would be provided pro rata by InfraStrata (65%) and its project partner NI\'s regulated gas and power grid operator Mutual Energy (35%).The amendment to the agreement means the option is extended until March 31 2017, even though the loan was repaid effective August 1 2016.
Operators:
InfraStrata UK Limited (subsidiary of InfraStrata plc): Operator with 65% interest
Mutual Energy Limited: 35% interest
Contractors:
Acona UK: Well drilling and project management operations on a salt well for InfraStrata. An Acona UK team is managing the drilling operations at the Islandmagee-1 well, on the shores of Larne Lough. Operations are expected to take about five weeks to drill the well, which is 1,700 metres deep. The objective is for data gathering to confirm the feasibility of a strategically important underground gas storage facility in leached salt caverns. During the drilling campaign, Acona UK will provide project management from its operations base in Great Yarmouth and well-site supervision and personnel at Islandmagee-1.
VSA Capital and Centrus Advisors: Advisers appointed to assist with the monetisation of the Islandmagee gas storage. VSA Capital to the monetisation process and Centrus Advisors to support the process at a project level. Both appointments are effective from 1 March 2016. (March 2016)