EnergyPathways (AIM: EPP) has been hit with delays for the expected results of its outstanding licence application for its Marram gas project.
Following recent communications from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the group has revised the date to the second quarter of 2024 from the previous date of the first quarter, as previously guided by the NSTA.
EnergyPathways said that it anticipates feedback on its other licence requests within the same timeframe.
The company has applied to the NSTA and the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning for Marram’s Field Development Plan approvals and has submitted a licence variation request to the NSTA to enable a fast-track Marram development to proceed.
The group’s CEO was bullish about getting the 35 billion cubic feet (bcf) Maram gas field in the Irish Sea to sanction in 2024.
FEED Progress
Meanwhile, the company continues to progress Marram towards Final Investment Decision; its Environmental Statement has been completed and a navigational risk assessment is being undertaken by Anatec Limited, a market leader in risk-based decision making.
EnergyPathways’ technical team has made progress on Marram’s FEED process, moving forward with the engineering and design for an all-electric, zero-emission subsea production system.
The company has also commenced the next phase of FEED for drilling and completions engineering with Zenith Energy.
In addition, EnergyPathways is progressing supply chain engagement and scheduling of lead times for certain long-lead items including subsea controls, electro-hydraulic umbilical, wellheads, subsea flowline and other major items.
A key focus through the ongoing FEED process is to ensure that the production from Marram is wholly powered by renewable energy and that the facilities will be engineered for energy storage re-use.
With studies indicating that Marram has high quality geo-storage reservoirs suitable for gas and hydrogen storage, EnergyPathways has submitted energy storage and production licence requests to the UK regulator and responses are expected in the first half of 24.
In the event of successful award for all these licenses, Marram’s storage capacity could potentially be increased 3-fold with the integration of the nearby Knox, Lowry and Castletown gas discoveries (around 140bcf), increasing the hub’s energy supply potential to 60mcf of gas per day.
Outstanding applications
Commenting on the update, EnergyPathways’ CEO Ben Clube said: “We are pleased to report on positive progress with regard to the decarbonised development concepts that underpin our FEED studies for the Marram Project and the follow-on developments targeted by the company.
“We believe that this initiative positions the company well to navigate the Marram Project through the current uncertainty in the UK’s oil and gas regulatory environment. We maintain supportive dialogue with the NSTA and understand that we will learn the outcome of our outstanding licence application in the first half of 2024.
“We are also making good progress with all the various workstreams that comprise the FEED process, as we seek to deliver the fast-track development of our high-value and strategically important Marram Project.”
“Our focus is to ensure that Marram is a best-in-class decarbonised development that is not only fully compliant with Government and NSTA directives, but also aligns with Government strategy to support decarbonised energy solutions.”
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