Rough Gas Storage Facility Reopened By Centrica On 28 October 2022

28th October 2022

Rough is a natural gas storage facility under the North Sea off the east coast of England. It is capable of storing 100 billion cubic feet of gas, nearly double the storage capacities in operation in Great Britain in 2021.

Originally opened in 1985, it was subsequently closed by Centrica Storage Ltd in 2017 because of the need for costly maintenance, the UK government refusing to subsidise repairs. Centrica gained approval from safety inspectors for the facility to be brought back into service in August 2022. The facility was reopened on 28 October 2022.

Rough is operating at around 20% of its previous capacity this winter, immediately making it the UK's largest gas storage site once again and adding 50% to the UK's gas storage volume.

UK has one of the lowest gas storage capacities in Europe. The UK has only 1.37% of annual consumption in storage where as Austria has over 96% of it annual consumptions in storage. The UK is in almost the worst position related to storage compared to nearly all other European countries. Check the link at the bottom of this page.

Production licences for the Rough field were given in 1964, and gas was first brought ashore to Easington gas processing terminal in 1975. In 1980 British Gas Corporation (which became British Gas plc in 1986 following privatisation) purchased the Rough field with one-third of reserves depleted, with the intention of converting the field into a gas storage facility to manage seasonal trends in the supply and demand of gas in the UK. In 1983 British Gas Corporation made the final decision to convert Rough into a natural gas storage facility. It came into operation in 1985 as the largest gas storage facility built in the UK continental shelf, capable of storing 100 billion cubic feet of gas, nearly double Great Britain's 2021 capacity.

The break-up of British Gas plc in 1997 into BG Group and Centrica meant that BG Storage was created as a ring-fenced subsidiary of BG Group, for competition reasons. In 2001, BG Group sold BG Storage, and thus the Rough facility, to Dynegy. In 2002, Centrica bought the plant from Dynegy for £304 million during its period of near-bankruptcy. The purchase of Rough led to the Competition Commission requesting certain undertakings being put in place because of Centrica's control of the Morecambe Bay gas fields which at the time were providing 10-15% of the UK's gas supply. In 2003 Centrica provided DECC with a set of undertakings and Centrica Storage Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Centrica plc) was formed. Centrica Storage Ltd still operates the Rough facility in accordance with the undertakings.

In June 2017, Centrica announced the closure of the Rough gas storage site on the grounds that it was uneconomical and had reached the end of its design life.[5]

In May 2022, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, began talks with the site's owners with a view to reopening the site to help ease the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the United Kingdom. In June 2022, owners Centrica submitted an application to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the licencing authority for the UK Government, to reopen the facility. Approval was granted in July. Subsequently, Centrica indicated that they are working hard to restore storage operations at Rough which would depend on securing subsidies from the British government. Centrica was aiming to have some capacity available for the winter of 2022/23 against an overall plan to increase storage capacity gradually over time.

For further details go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_(facility)

For updating information on European countries storage capacities go to https://viborc.com/europe-gas-storage-reserves-capacities-by-country-daily/