Centrica plc today announced it expects to commence first gas flows from the Bains field in the East Irish Sea in early November.
The Centrica operated field in block 110/3c has been developed as a £26m fast-track project with estimated reserves of 50 billion cubic feet (bcf). A single subsea well tied back to the South Morecambe field will see gas feed into the existing pipeline to Centrica’s South Morecambe terminal at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Named after John Bains, the engineer credited with helping to discover the North and South Morecambe gas fields in the 1970s, the Bains field will have a peak production capacity of 70 million standard cubic feet (mcf) per day.
Bains is one of several projects in the East Irish Sea in which Centrica is playing a key part as it looks to make the best use of its infrastructure in the area. A recent innovative drilling project in its South Morecambe field saw additional reserves added to the portfolio, while Centrica owned land at Barrow will host a new onshore terminal for Burlington Resources’ Rivers fields which are due on stream in late 2003. Centrica will operate the Rivers onshore and offshore facilities on behalf of Burlington Resources.
Bains will be Centrica’s first additional operatorship of a producing UK equity asset since demerger from British Gas plc in 1997.
Jake Ulrich, Managing Director of Centrica’s Energy Management Group (CEMG), said: “After the Bains field is commissioned it will represent another step in Centrica’s strategy of maximising reserves in the East Irish Sea and of making best economic use of the infrastructure we have there.
“It is also pleasing that Centrica is marking the work of John Bains in this way. His achievement in helping discover key assets in the East Irish Sea back in the 1970s, has proved to be invaluable to our upstream operations today."