Centrica is investing £60million to boost gas production at its Morecambe Bay operations offshore of the north-west of England.
The project will see two 5,000-tonne platforms in the East Irish Sea refurbished.
The work is expected to start later this month and will boost output from the fields which already produce enough gas to heat 1.5million UK homes.
Over the course of the next nine months, the teams working on a jack-up accommodation barge will overhaul the equipment on the normally-unmanned installations.
The barge will be moored alongside the DP6 and DP8 platforms so the engineers can ‘walk to work’.
The crew will also remove the lifeboats and 60-tonne cranes on both platforms so they can be refurbished and reinstalled.
The project will see around 350 jobs supported both across the offshore and onshore sectors through Centrica and its project partners.
Once complete, the campaign will unlock up to a further 3billion cubic feet of gas under the East Irish Sea by simplifying the process required to get it to shore.
The project is just one part of a major investment programme planned for Centrica’s Morecambe Bay operations, both offshore and onshore.
Earlier this year, Centrica announced plans to remove some of the redundant equipment on its South Terminal at the Barrow Gas Terminals in a £15million project.
All the gas from Centrica’s East Irish Sea fields is now processed at the newer North Morecambe Terminal, leading to the planning application to remove some of the oldest equipment at the nearby South Terminal.
Tamsin Lishman, Morecambe Bay director for Centrica’s exploration & production business said: “The Morecambe Bay fields have been a cornerstone of our business since first gas flowed into the Barrow Gas Terminals more than 30 years ago, so we are delighted to continue investing in their future.
“With nearly 300billion cubic feet of gas still in place under the East Irish Sea, major projects like this will help ensure we maximise the potential of these fields and continue supplying gas for UK homes and businesses.”
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