The UK has given an initial go-ahead to the reopening of the UK’s biggest natural gas storage facility.
In early June, British Gas owner Centrica submitted an application to the North Sea energy regulator to reopen Rough.
The North Sea Transition Authority said the award of the licence allows Centrica to move forward in seeking further regulatory approvals required before gas storage operations can start.
Centrica closed Rough, a facility located 18 miles off the east coast of Yorkshire, in 2017.
Back then, Centrica said the wells and facilities suffered a number of different failure modes while testing as they are at the end of their design life and therefore cannot safely return them to injection and storage operations.
The facility is believed to represent more than 70% of the UK’s current storage capacity.
In mid-June Centrica signed with Equinor an agreement that will see the Norwegian energy firm deliver an additional one billion cubic metres of gas supplies to the UK for each of the next three winters.
