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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R T H E U K O F F S H O R E O I L A N D G A S I N D U S T R Y
reservoir extends further than originally
anticipated.
Investment to upgrade the Barrow
Terminals is also afoot. In partnership
with two UK contractors, Costain and
Land & Marine, Centrica’s £84 million
project has created 100 new jobs to lay
an underground 1.5 kilometre pipeline
from the south to the north terminals
and to undertake essential maintenance.
There has also been a boost to the local
economy, with local construction and
engineering businesses providing services
and expertise to support the project,
which will complete at the end of this year.
supply chain and working closely with
them is vital if we are to drive down costs,
drive up efficiency and maintain safety,”
insists Myrtle.
The event involved 100 people with all
those present being given problems to
solve and split into teams to come up
with new ideas. The delegates focused
on three key areas – new developments,
drilling and potential decommissioning
projects. Within those, they looked at a
number of other themes, for example,
plugging and abandoning, extended reach
drilling and brownfield modifications.
“We also had some more general ‘blue
sky’ areas where we talked about how we
work,” adds Myrtle.
She continues: “One recurring theme
was equipment standardisation. Similar
to other operators we can fall into the
Securing the future
Centrica recognises that working closely
with its suppliers is crucial to ensure
long-term competitiveness, especially
in the current climate of high operating
costs. Myrtle Dawes, Centrica’s
director of projects, is helping to
meet this challenge.
She says: “For some, working together
might be counter-intuitive – we are all
competing businesses after all – but I
think now there is an acceptance that
we need to be more open. The challenge
of operating in a low oil price [but high
cost] environment is transforming that
lofty ambition into a reality. Industry
needs to work together if we want to
maximise the potential of the UKCS.”
This is the thinking behind the company’s
Unlocking the Portfolio initiative, which
hosted a ‘hackathon’ brainstorming event
in March this year, bringing together
experts across the supply chain to
establish new ways of working
to meet the cost and efficiency
challenges. “Some 80 per cent
of our expenditure goes to our
Spares and repairs engineer Greg
Wood (left) and Implementation
engineer Les Hall (right) have been
working at Morecambe Bay since
production began 30 years ago
There’s a real sense
of shared experience
that comes from
working in such a unique
environment.
“
”
Petrophysicist John
Bains discovers gas in
Morecambe Bay
1972
1974
British Gas buys the
rights and drills an
exploration well
1982
Construction starts both
offshore and at Barrow-in-
Furness to develop the fields
1985
Production starts. Huge quantities of gas come
ashore at Barrow before being processed and sent
into the grid and onto UK homes for the first
time
1992
South Morecambe hits peak
production, meeting more than
20 per cent of UK gas demand
MORECAMBE BAY
THREE DECADES OF
GAS PRODUCTION
Over 100 people attended Centrica
Energy’s ‘hackathon’ event in
March as part of its Unlocking the
Portfolio initiative. The aim was to
bring together experts across the
supply chain to establish new ways
of working to meet the cost and
efficiency challenges
110
113
109
112
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Rhyl
SouthMorecambe
NorthMorecambe
Knox
Lowry
Bains
!
BarrowTerminals