Bacton Gas Terminal — BrandWiki

Bacton Gas Terminal

floor area	200 acre

pushpin map	United Kingdom Norfolk

building type	Gas terminal

current tenants	Eni, National Grid, Shell UK, Perenco

height	410-470ft (two communication radio masts)

The Bacton Gas Terminal is a complex of six gas terminals within four sites located on the North Sea coast of North Norfolk in the United Kingdom. The sites are near Paston and between Bacton and Mundesley; the nearest town is North Walsham. Bacton Gas Terminal is protected by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

The other main UK gas terminals which receive gas from the UK continental shelf are at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire; Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire; Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire (now decommissioned); CATS Terminal, Teesside; and Rampside gas terminal, Barrow, Cumbria.

History

The Bacton complex which covers an area of about 180 acres (73 ha) opened during 1968. It has a frontage of 1 km (3200 feet) along the cliff top. It was initially built by Shell-Esso, Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group, Amoco-Gas Council. Planning permission had been given on 16 June 1967 by Anthony Greenwood, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale. The Leman field began production on 13 August 1968 (joint Shell-Esso and joint Amoco-Gas Council), the Hewett field (Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group) began operations in July 1969 and the Indefatigable field (joint Shell-Esso and joint Amoco-Gas Council) began production in October 1971. Construction of the £5 million Phillips-Arpet plant began in April 1968. Gas from the Shell-Esso part of the Leman field was delivered to Bacton via a 34-mile-long pipeline. A 36-inch diameter 140-mile-long pipeline (Number 2 feeder main) costing £17 million was built by Italsider from Bacton to the National Transmission System near Rugby. When initially completed in 1968 the terminal had a total gas throughput capacity of 3955 e6ft3 per day at standard conditions.[1] The Gas Council marketed the new North Sea gas as High Speed Gas.

A. Monk Ltd of Padgate built the 1968 Shell plant.[2]

Operation

The Bacton complex consists of six gas terminals. The terminals are:

Three of the terminals (Eni, Perenco and Shell) receive gas from Southern North Sea (SNS) and some Central North Sea (CNS) offshore gas fields. Initial gas processing, such as removal of free water, takes place on the offshore gas installations. At the terminals gas and condensate are received in slugcatchers (to separate gas and hydrocarbon liquids and condensed water), the gas is compressed if necessary, dehydrated using triethylene glycol, and chilled to achieve a specified hydrocarbon dewpoint. Sour gas (sulphurous) had previously been removed at the Eni site by amine gas treating, now decommissioned. Hydrocarbon condensate is stabilized and piped by the British Pipeline Agency along the route of the former North Walsham to Mundesley railway line to the North Walsham rail terminal and thence by rail to an oil refinery at Harwich Essex. Treated gas from the three terminals flows to the National Grid terminal located immediately to the south of the reception terminals. Two of the terminals (Interconnector and BBL) receive gas from, or deliver gas to, the gas networks of continental Europe. Manifolds within the National Grid terminal blend the gas and distribute it to the National Transmission System at around 1000 psig (69 bar).

The offshore reception terminals were originally run by Royal Dutch Shell-Esso, Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group and Amoco-Gas Council. Amoco and BP announced they had merged in 1998 to form BP Amoco, the merged organisation changed its name to BP in 2001.

Shell gas fields

Leman

The Leman field is 30 miles (48 km) north-east of Great Yarmouth. It is 800 ft (240 m) thick Rotliegendes sandstone reservoir at a depth of about 6,000 ft (1830 m). It is about 18 miles (29 km) long by 5 miles (8 km) wide.[7] It was discovered in August 1966 is licensed to Shell (Block 49/26) and Perenco (Block 49/27). The Leman 49/26A (AD1, AD2, AP & AK) installation began production in August 1968. It had initial recoverable reserves of 292 billion m3.[8] It is connected to the Shell terminal at Bacton. Leman 49/26B (BT & BH) and 49/26B (BP & BD) began production in November 1970. Leman 49/26C (CD & CP) began in February 1972. Leman 49/26D began in August 1974. Leman 49/26E started in August 1983. Leman 49/26F and 49/26G began in September 1987. The Leman complex of platforms connects to Bacton via Leman 49/26A, and is directly east of the Hewett complex. A decommissioned 36-inch pipeline formerly delivered gas from Leman 49/26BT to Bacton. The field is named after the Leman Sandbank upon which it is situated.[9] Field gas is piped to Bacton via Leman 49/26A Complex (AK, AP, AD1 and AD2) where facilities consist of two

Tullow and Eni fields

Hewett

The Hewett field (Blocks 48/29, 48/30, 52/4 and 52/5) has several reservoirs at relatively shallow depths: 3,000-4,200 ft (910–1280 m). The structure is a north-west to south-east anticline about 18 miles (29 km) long by three miles (4.8 km) wide.[7] It is operated by Eni UK and comprises the complexes: Dawn, Big Dotty, and Deborah, and Delilah, Della and Little Dotty. It is owned 89.31% by Eni UK with Perenco owning the remaining 10.69%. It was discovered in October 1966 and production started in July 1969. It had initial recoverable reserves of 97 billion m3.[8] The Hewett field produced gas from four subsea reservoirs: Permian Rotliegendes sandstone, Permian Zechstein magnesian limestone, and Lower Triassic Lower Bunter shale and Upper Bunter sandstone. The Upper Bunter formation comprised sour (high sulphur) gas. This required the provision of sour gas treatment facilities at Bacton, before production from the Upper Bunter was suspended in 2000. Hewett has two 30-inch pipelines to Bacton (27.7 km and 32.8 km). It is the set of fields nearest to Bacton being 25 mi east of Great Yarmouth. It was run by Phillips Petroleum, which became ConocoPhillips, and then largely owned and run by Tullow Oil before being purchased by Eni UK.

Perenco gas fields

[13]

Leman

Block 49/27 of the Leman field is licensed to, and operated by, Perenco UK Ltd, originally by the Gas Council-Amoco. It was discovered in August 1966 and production started in August 1968. It had initial recoverable reserves of 292 billion m3. It comprises the following installations, platforms and complexes: Leman 49/27A (AD, AP, AC, AQ, AX); 49/27B (BD, BP, BT); 49/27C (CD, CP); 49/27D (DD, DP); 49/27E (ED, EP); 49/27F (FD, FP); 49/27G; 49/27H; and 49/27J. Gas is routed to Bacton via two 30-inch pipelines from Leman 49/27A and Leman 49/27B.

Indefatigable

Blocks 49/23 and 49/18 of the Indefatigable field are licensed to, and operated by, Perenco, originally by the Gas Council-Amoco. The field was discovered in June 1966 and production started in September 1971. It had initial recoverable reserves of 125 billion m3.[8] It comprises the following installations, platforms and complex: Indefatigable 49/23A (AT, AC, AQ); 49/23C (CD, CP); 49/23D (including the Baird field); 49/23E (Bessemer) and the subsea installation N.W.Bell (49/23-9); Inde 49/18A; and 49/18B. The decommissioned Shell Indefatigable field 49/24 formerly produced gas via the Inde 49/23A complex.

ENGIE E&P gas fields

Cygnus

The Cygnus gas field (44/11 and 44/12) was discovered in 1988. gas is produced via the Cygnus Alpha and Cygnus Bravo platforms. [15][16] Gas first flowed to the UK on 13 December 2016. In 2017 it became the UK's largest gas field, providing 5% of the UK's natural gas, enough for 1.5 million homes. The platforms were built in Hartlepool and Fife, each weighing 4,400 tonnes. The gas is transported to the Perenco terminal via the 550-km pipeline on the Eagles Transmission System (ETS). The field is in the Permian Leman Sandstone Formation and Carboniferous Ketch Formation. The field is operated by Engie E&P UK Limited (former GDF Suez), which is 48% owned by Centrica.[17]

Iona gas fields

Trent

Trent (Block 43/24) is owned by Iona UK Developments Co. It was previously owned and operated by ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company), and then Perenco UK Ltd. It was discovered in March 1991 and production started in November 1996. It connects to the Perenco Bacton terminal via the Eagles pipeline. Has two Solar Mars gas turbines for the compressor.

Tyne South & Tyne North

Furthest north of the Bacton gas fields, Tyne (Block 44/18) is around the same latitude north as Teesside. Owned by Iona UK Developments Co. It was run by ARCO, and then Perenco. Discovered in January 1992 and November 1996. Connects to Bacton via the Interfield pipeline and Eagles pipeline.

Decommissioned gas fields

Esmond, Forbes and Gordon

The Esmond (43/8a), Forbes (43/13a) and Gordon (43/20a) fields reservoir is in the Lower Triassic Bunter Sandstone and was discovered by well 43/13-1 in 1969 by Hamilton Brothers Oil and Gas. First gas was produced in July 1985 from four installations operated by BHP Petroleum Ltd. Peak production rate was 200 e6ft3 per day at standard conditions. Gas was exported by a 24 inch pipeline to the Amoco (now Perenco) terminal at Bacton. These fields and their platforms were decommissioned in 1995. In 1995 the export pipeline system (Esmond Transmission System, ETS) was renamed EAGLES (East Anglia Gas and Liquid Evacuation System) and operatorship was taken over by ARCO (then BP, later Perenco, now Iona) for production from the Trent and Tyne fields.

Welland NW & Welland S

Welland (53/4) was operated initially by Arco, ExxonMobil and lastly Perenco and owned 34% by Tullow Exploration Ltd, 55% by Esso, and 11% by Consort EU Ltd. Welland NW was discovered in January 1984 and Welland S in June 1984. Production started in September 1990. Situated south-east of the Thames complex to which it was connected to Bacton. Named after the River Welland. The Welland proved uneconomical by 2005 and was decommissioned and removed in 2010.

Camelot N and Camelot C & S

Baird and Deborah gas storage

Until its closure to new injections in 2017, the Rough facility was the only depleted UK offshore gas field reservoir that was used for gas storage and retrieval. Several projects have been developed to use other depleted gas fields but none have proved to be economically viable. Two examples associated with Bacton are the Baird and the Deborah Gas Storage Projects.

Baird gas storage project

Perenco’s Baird field is located in Block 49/23, 86 km off the coast of Norfolk. It is located adjacent to Perenco's Indefatigable field through which it exports gas via Inde 49/23D.

The Baird gas storage project was to have been built by Centrica Storage and Perenco (UK) Ltd. Centrica acquired 70% interest in the project from Perenco in February 2009. The companies formed a 70/30% joint venture called Bacton Storage Company to operate the facility when completed.[19]

The project involved the transport of gas from the National Transmission System (NTS) through the Perenco onshore terminal at Bacton and then by pipeline offshore to be injected and stored in the Baird reservoir. Gas injection would take place during the Summer and be reversed during the Winter drawing gas from the reservoir for processing at Bacton and delivery into the NTS.

Installation identification

An offshore installation on the UK Continental Shelf may comprise a single integrated platform or two or more bridge-linked platforms. Installations are identified by a large black-on-yellow sign on the installation. This may give the name of the original or current owner or operator, the field name, and a set of numbers and letters, e.g. Shell/Esso Leman 49/26A. The numbers identify the Quadrant and Block where the installation is located, e.g. 49/26 is in Quadrant 49 Block 26.[23] The first letter is a sequential letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) identifying each installation within a field. The second and subsequent letters may designate a platform's function, e.g. the Leman 49/26A complex comprises four bridge-linked platforms 49/26AP (Production), 49/26AD1 (Drilling 1), 49/26AD2 (Drilling 2), and 49/26AK (Compression). Common designations are: Note: Drilling refers to the original function of the platform to support well drilling operations. No Southern North Sea installation has permanent drilling facilities.

On some installations the letters simply provide a unique two letter identity, e.g.Tethys TN, Viscount VO.

Accidents and incidents

On 13 August 1981, 11 gas workers lost their lives in the G-ASWI North Sea ditching, in a Wessex helicopter. At 6pm on 28 February 2008, there was an explosion and fire at the Shell UK terminal, for which Shell was fined £1 million.[24]

Coastal erosion

When the terminal was first built in the 1960s, it was 100 m from the sea. By 2019 coastal erosion had reduced this to 10 m. In July 2019 a scheme commenced to place almost two million cubic metres of sand along a 6 km stretch of beach. Costing £20 million, the scheme will protect the villages of Bacton and Walcott as well as the gas terminal. The sea defences, designed by Dutch engineering company Royal HaskoningDHV, are expected to protect the site for between 15 and 20 years. The enhanced beach will be 7 m high and extend up to 250 m out to sea. The scheme was inspired by an experiment in the Netherlands called the Zandmotor. £14.5 million of the cost of the scheme will be covered by the Bacton gas terminal operators, with £5 million being contributed by the Environment Agency and £0.5 million from North Norfolk District Council.[25] In October 2021 the BBC reported that a sand bar had formed offshore which the sand at the base of the cliff had formed a ledge with a drop of 3m: the bar was breaking the energy of the waves and erosion of cliffs halted with improvements also noted at nearby Walcott.[26]

External links

News items

Emergency procedures in January 2011

References

Richard Cassidy. Gas: Natural Energy Frederick Muller Limited, 1979^
Runcorn Guardian Thursday 29 April 1971, page 10^
Hewett Bacton Terminal^

Shell terminal

The Shell terminal, the most easterly of the three, receives gas and condensate from two offshore pipelines. These are a 55.7 km long 30-inch pipeline from the Leman 49/26AP offshore installation and a 73 km 24-inch pipeline from the Clipper PT installation. A mothballed 30-inch pipeline formally delivered gas from the Leman 49/26BT installation to Bacton. The terminal also receives gas from the 474 km long 34-inch SEAL Pipeline, which transports gas from the Shearwater and Elgin-Franklin gas fields in the Central North Sea. The SEAL Pipeline is the longest on the UK Continental Shelf. The Shell plant has a gas treatment capacity of 900 e6ft3 per day at standard conditions and a condensate stabilization capacity of 8,000 barrels per day (1,270 m3/day). The gas hydrocarbon dewpoint is achieved by propane refrigeration. Truck loading facilities for condensate were originally provided. It employs 46 people and began operations in 1968. The BBL Pipeline terminal became operational in December 2006 and is located within the Shell terminal. The BBL terminal is operated, but not owned, by Shell.

Eni terminal

The most westerly of the terminals is owned by Eni of Italy. It receives gas from two 30-inch pipelines from the Hewett field (27.7 km and 32.8 km long) and a 62 km long 20-inch pipeline from Lancelot 48/17A offshore installation (LAPS complex). A decommissioned 24-inch pipeline formerly delivered gas from the Thames 49/28A offshore installation. Gas and liquid from each pipeline are received and processed separately.[3] After gas and condensate are separated in vessel-type slugcatchers and filter-separators each gas stream is fiscally metered (for tax purposes). The two Hewett field gas streams are combined and increased in pressure through an eductor. The gas stream was formerly treated with amine to remove sulphur compounds, this facility was decommissioned in 2000 when production from the sour Hewett Upper Bunter reservoir was shut-in. The gas is comingled with the LAPS gas then compressed. It was formerly dehydrated using triethylene glycol and underwent hydrocarbon dew point reduction by chilling with propane. Finally it was fiscally metered (for sales) and transferred to the Bacton NTS plant. Formerly the terminal had pentane storage tanks and a truck loading facility. The terminal has two GE 11MW Frame 3 and one GE 3.7MW Frame 1 gas turbines, connected to three centrifugal compressors. In 2011 the Eni Terminal was split by segregating the reception and some of the compression facilities from the dehydration and dewpoint control plant, the latter was decommissioned. Now after compression the gas is sent to the Perenco site for dehydration and dewpoint control. The separated condensate is also sent to the Perenco site. During late 2013/2014 the redundant processing facilities were removed and now the majority of the Eni site is unused.

Perenco terminal

This terminal, located between the Shell terminal and the Eni terminal, processes gas from pipelines from the Leman, Indefatigable and Trent & Tyne fields. These include two 30 inch pipelines from the Leman 49/27AP and Leman 49/27B offshore installations (61.82 km and 64.9 km respectively) and a 24 inch pipeline from the Trent 43/24 offshore installation. The processing plant comprises two parallel trains (A1 plant and A2 plant) each with an initial processing capacity of 1000 e6ft3 per day at standard conditions and a condensate stabilization capacity of 600 m3/day, stabilized condensate is stored in gasoline storage tanks prior being piped to the North Walsham rail terminal. Gas from the 'Leman' pipe-type slugcatcher is normally routed to dewpoint control plant streams 1, 2 and 3; gas from the 'Inde' pipe-type slugcatcher is routed to dewpoint control plant streams 4 & 5. Gas from the Tyne and Trent pipe-type slugcatcher can be routed to either dew point control plant. There is also a cross-connection to and from the Shell terminal.

The ENI terminal was integrated into the Perenco Terminal in 2011, thereby diverting the Hewett, LAPS and at one time Thames gas and condensate from the slug catchers and compression in the Eni terminal to the Perenco terminal upstream of the dehydration and dew point control plant.

National Gas terminal

Connections from the offshore reception terminals comprise two 30-inch lines from the Eni terminal (now disused), two 30-inch lines from the Perenco terminal, four 24-inch lines from the Shell terminal and a 36-inch line from the BBL pipeline. Gas from the Perenco and Shell terminals is filtered, measured through orifice plates and the flow regulated by volume into a manifold system. Facilities for heating the gas by pressurised hot water are provided should this be necessary if the pressure of the incoming gas has to be reduced appreciably. There are four 36-inch manifolds within the National Gas terminal, plus one spare, which can receive flow from any of the incoming lines, thus blending the gas.[4] A 24-inch by-pass ringmain around the site perimeter enables the terminal to be completely by-passed in an emergency. The blended gases are odorised (1 kg odorant for 60,000 m3 of gas)[5] and the flow rate is measured and distributed then to the National Transmission System via five outgoing feeders: From the National Gas terminal gas can also be sent to, or received from, Zeebrugge, Belgium via the Interconnector, received from the Netherlands via the 36-inch Balgzand Bacton Line BBL Pipeline. Gas is also distributed to the local area via a low pressure gas distribution system and sent via a 12-inch high pressure pipeline to Great Yarmouth power station

Interconnector UK terminal

The Interconnector terminal is located within the National Grid terminal. It can import gas from, or export gas to, Zeebrugge, Belgium via a 235 km pipeline operating at up to 147 bar. There is a 30-inch direct access line from the SEAL pipeline. It works via four GE LM2500 gas turbines and a Thermodyn centrifugal compressor in its compressor station, which was built by Kværner John Brown (now called McDermott). The Interconnector was commissioned in 1998.

BBL terminal

The BBL (Bacton–Balgzand line) terminal is located within the Shell terminal, it receives gas from the compressor station in Anna Paulowna in the Netherlands. The Bacton reception plant is owned by BBL Company and the plant is operated by Shell.[6] Gas arrives at Bacton at approximately seabed temperature and a pressure of up to 135 bar but which varies depending on the amount of line pack. Bacton's role is to reduce the pressure for entry to the National Transmission System. As such, significant Joule–Thomson cooling may occur prior to gas injection into the NTS. Therefore, four identical parallel streams are installed at Bacton, each equipped with a direct-fired water bath heater on a slipstream and designed to operate as three duty and one standby at maximum flow conditions, in order to control the delivery temperature and pressure of the gas. The BBL Pipeline is 235 km long and was commissioned in December 2006.

cost
location	Bacton, NR12 0JE
coordinates	52.8608°N, 1.4575°W
construction start date	1967
completion date	1968
inauguration date	13 August 1968

History

Operation

Shell gas fields

Leman

Tullow and Eni fields

Hewett

Perenco gas fields

Leman

Indefatigable

ENGIE E&P gas fields

Cygnus

Iona gas fields

Trent

Tyne South & Tyne North

Decommissioned gas fields

Esmond, Forbes and Gordon

Welland NW & Welland S

Camelot N and Camelot C & S

Baird and Deborah gas storage

Baird gas storage project

Installation identification

Accidents and incidents

Coastal erosion

See also

External links

News items

References

Shell terminal

Eni terminal

Perenco terminal

National Gas terminal

Interconnector UK terminal

BBL terminal

Indefatigable and Indefatigable SW

Corvette

Brigantine

Sean

Clipper

Barque

Galleon

Carrack and Cutter

Shearwater

Fizzy

Lancelot

Galahad & Mordred

Guinevere

Excalibur

Davy, Bessemer, Beaufort and Brown

Davy East

Thames, Yare, Bure, Thurne, Wensum and Deben

Arthur

Horne and Wren

Wissey

Orwell

Gawain

Tristan

Deborah gas storage project