Offshore Gasification One Step Closer

Five-Quarter Energy has been awarded a grant for £15M from the Regional Growth Fund to progress its North Sea gasification strategy.

The scale of reserves of gas source rock beneath the sea is significant and its release could have a major impact on the UK energy mix. Estimates suggest that the UK has a few thousand billion tonnes beneath the North Sea, as well as elsewhere onshore. Five-Quarter currently holds Government licences for just over 2 billion tonnes in a 400 sq km area off the Northumberland coast. In terms of energy, in this area alone, the potential gas deposits could be more than the total natural gas extracted from the entire North Sea to date.

Five-Quarter is already working closely with Northumberland County Council and the North-East LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) to establish the UK’s first commercial deep gas winning plant within the newly created Enterprise Zone at Blyth on the Northumberland coast. Plans include the establishment of a new gas processing facility and a multi-skilled community, comparable to Aberdeen, with the creation of more than 600 new skilled jobs.

Read the full story on the Five-Quarter website.