Wood has been awarded a contract by Centrica Energy Storage (CES) for the redevelopment of the UK’s Rough field, in readiness for future hydrogen storage.
The Rough reservoir, located in the Southern North Sea, has been used to store natural gas safely for more than 30 years and has the potential to provide around half of the UK’s hydrogen storage requirements.
The front-end engineering design contract entails new pipelines, a new unmanned installation, as well as onshore injection facilities at the Easington Gas Terminal.
The award creates around 50 new roles in the UK.
Steve Nicol, executive president of operations at Wood, said: “We are proud to be a part of this innovative redevelopment project, critical to both the UK’s long-term energy security and its industrial decarbonisation commitments.
“Hydrogen, alongside offshore wind and carbon capture and storage is vital to the UK’s net zero ambition and will be key to decarbonising industries, transport and power.”
Martin Scargill, managing director at CES, said: “We have huge ambitions for the future of Rough and our partnership with Wood is an important stepping stone on the path to realising those ambitions.
“We are ready to invest in future-proofing this critical asset subject to agreeing a regulatory support model that would underpin gas storage investment in the UK.”
CES recently announced its ambition for the Rough field to become the largest long-duration hydrogen storage facility in the world, however, a final investment decision for the project is still dependent on a UK Government support model that would underpin gas storage investment.
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