Winter gas secured for England

LONDON, July 2 (UPI) -- Commercial operations at a storage facility in northern England will hold enough gas to meet more than 30 percent of current demand, the joint operators said.

Norway's StatoilHydro and Scottish and Southern Energy have launched commercial operations at the Aldbrough gas storage facility to meet British demands.

Britain "is Europe's biggest gas market and lies close to our core area for gas production," said Torgrim Retain, a senior vice president at StatoilHydro. "We are a committed gas supplier and continuously work to improve and optimize our supplies to customers and the market."

The Aldbrough salt cavern facility is the first in the region since 2005. It is expected to hold 2.1 billion cubic feet of gas initially, with an ultimate capacity of 130 billion cubic feet, making it the largest onshore storage facility in England, the Platts news service reports.

Initial volumes for the storage facility will be enough to satisfy more than 30 percent of the daily needs for regional customers, which translates to roughly 16 percent of the winter demand.

The project was delayed by nearly two years due to construction delays. If approved, a second phase of the Aldbrough project could expand volumes significantly.