Gas storage facility would secure supply, firm claims

A PROPOSED £250 million natural gas storage facility almost a mile under Larne Lough would provide a significant amount of Ireland’s gas needs and help ensure security of supply, according to the company behind the project.

Plans for the project to store 500 million cubic metres of natural gas have been submitted by Islandmagee Storage Ltd (IMSL), an entity run by English company Infrastrata and Mutual Energy Limited.

Bill Cargo, an executive directors of Mutual Energy, which also owns the gas interconnector between Scotland and Northern Ireland, said the proposed facility was the equivalent of a “huge gas warehouse”. It would allow the major gas suppliers in Ireland and Britain to buy and store gas when it was at its cheapest.

Mr Cargo explained that the gas would be stored in seven under-sea caverns, each 160 metres high and 80 metres wide. These can be created because of ancient salt beds that lie under Larne Lough.

“There is a Permian rock salt structure about a mile under the surface that was laid down about 275 million years ago and we believe it is about 200 metres thick at this location. The Larne Lough area is the only place off Ireland where these type of salt structures exist,” he said.

“We drill down into the rock and pump sea water in. It will dissolve the salt and then you extract the concentrated salt water. Over an 18-month period you leach out the cavern and create these cavern structures,” said Mr Cargo.

He said it was a well-proven safe gas storage technique, with 70 similar facilities worldwide, including three in the UK. The caverns would be connected to the gas interconnector. ISML has also submitted an environmental impact statement “which highlights any potential impacts from the scheme and explains how these will be mitigated during and after construction”.

The project would take seven years to complete with the drilling work starting from the shore, and going down 1,500 metres. Mr Cargo said it would create 200 construction jobs with an additional 20 to 30 longer-term operational posts.

“The capacity in the storage facility will be auctioned on an annual basis. Our customers will be the major gas suppliers,” said Mr Cargo. “There is a real need for this because North Sea gas is running down now and we are becoming increasingly reliant on imports of gas. Those supplies are less secure and increasingly the companies will want to get gas when they can and put it in storage for when they need it,” he added.

“It should be the classic situation of buying gas cheap in the summer, putting it into storage and using it in the winter. It should help to stabilise prices and bring security of supply,” said Mr Cargo.

Andrew Hindle, managing director of IMSL, said Ireland had no natural gas storage and relied increasingly on gas imports from outside Ireland and Britain.

“This proposed development at Islandmagee will make a significant contribution to the security of energy supplies and is designed to supply up to 5 per cent of UK and Ireland daily peak demand.”