WIRELINE Issue 32 - Summer 2015

Pride in production As the UK celebrates 50 years of oil and gas exploration and production, the Morecambe Bay area reaches its own historic milestone of three decades of gas production, during which time it has made an enduring contribution to domestic energy supply and the economy. Wireline looks back on its remarkable journey and looks forward to the new opportunities and challenges ahead. “T he first day of production was all about proving that everything worked – we didn’t produce a lot of gas but we discovered by petrophysicist John Bains in 1972, signalling the start of a new era in UK gas exploration and production from beneath the Irish Sea. The rights were acquired by British Gas and Morecambe and the surrounding fields in the East Irish Sea. Les has worked there since 1984 when the terminals were being built. “I remember thinking at the time that we were part of something big,” he says. Gas reserves in Morecambe Bay off the coast of Lancashire and Cumbria were construction work on the £1.3 billion onshore and offshore infrastructure began during the 1980s. First gas was had a real sense of achievement,” reflects Les Hall, implementation engineer at the Barrow Gas Terminals in Cumbria, which processes gas from North and South

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