Albury Gas Storage, United Kingdom

Star Energy's latest venture is the new £134m Albury Gas Storage Project in Surrey. The price of gas has fluctuated to such an extent in the past year that it has made the population of the UK realise how much increasing energy prices could affect their household outgoings in the future.

The sharp increase in gas prices has happened to a lesser extent in Europe because there much more gas storage infrastructure is available, allowing gas to be purchased when the market price is low and resold at a later date when the price has gone up significantly. This allows the gas storage company to make a profit but helps to keep prices on an even keel because at times of high demand, there are additional supplies to draw on.

The gas odorant, which is usually an alkane sulphide, is removed using a granular catalyst adsorbent prior to storage. Star Energy will also have to take note of possible changes in the gas reservoirs they use because of cycling pressures during charging and depletion of the reservoir.

Star Energy

Star Energy is using this business plan and setting up gas storage infrastructure in the UK. Star Energy has already built a gas storage facility at Humbly Grove in Alton, Hampshire, UK, which opened in November 2005 and has a capacity of 10bn ft³.

This facility operates by taking gas from the national transmission system at Barton Stacey via a 17 mile pipeline and then depositing the gas in the Humbly Grove oil field. The gas is stored for later use but increases pressure in the oil reservoir, which will boost its useful production life by a further ten years (20 year lifetime).

The initial proposal was to build a gas storage processing facility on Albury Park, but this met with opposition because it is part of an area of outstanding natural beauty. The plans were revised so that the processing facility will be built at Furze Copse near Send Prison.

The gas storage reservoir will be in the sandstone geology of the now depleted Albury Field, about 2,100ft below sea level, providing about 6bn ft³ of storage. A second phase to this storage reservoir could potentially provide some 24bn ft³ of space at a later date.

The project

The phase one project, also known as Albury 1, would involve the construction of storage infrastructure. The first stage is the drilling of four 10,000ft development wells at the Albury Well site for access to the reservoir.

There would also be a pipeline from the Albury site to the gas processing site at Furze Copse. The route of this 32in pipeline would go underground west of New Road and then cross to the east of the road and under the A25, continuing north to the east of Sherbourne Farm.

The construction width would be 26m and the pipeline would be 5 miles (8.3km) long at a minimum depth of 1m and construction would last about 6 months. The gas processing facility and a temporary construction camp would be built on the 10 hectare site, taking up about 3.5 hectares.

There would also be a temporary pipe store and contractors' staging yard at East Clandon. The remaining infrastructure would include an additional 1 mile (1.8km) pipeline connecting the gas processing facility to the local gas grid and an above ground connection to West Horsley to connect to the gas grid there as well.

Although the project has the support of the secretary of state, it is going through an environmental impact assessment and a positive outcome from this will be used to submit a planning application to Surrey County Council in 2009. It is possible that Star Energy will use the 1965 Gas Act and avoid local planning regulations just by going on the secretary of state for energy’s recommendations.

Star Energy's future plans

There are other projects under consideration for Star Energy in the UK and these include developing a further gas storage facility that makes use of the Bletchingley gas field for which two appraisal wells have already been drilled at Godstone. In addition there could also be an application to use the Gainsborough field for gas storage.