Marathon announces open season for new North Sea natural gas pipeline
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 15 -- Marathon Oil Co., Houston, announced an open season May 14-Oct.15 concerning the previously announced Symphony natural gas pipeline project in the North Sea that is intended to ensure supplies for the UK.
The proposed project would be designed to transport natural gas from UK and Norwegian North Sea fields to the Bacton terminal on the southeastern coast of the UK (OGJ Mar. 11, 2002, p. 8).
During the open season, Marathon will meet with prospective UK and Norwegian gas owners and field operators to outline pipeline plans and solicit input on the types of services sought. Gas owners, marketers, and operators also will be invited to offer gas volumes and contract for capacity on the pipeline.
Marathon says the pipeline could begin operating in 2005, assuming timely regulatory approval by UK, Norwegian, and other European regulatory officials, satisfactory supply commitments and financing arrangements, and final engineering design.
William H. Hastings, Marathon International Petroleum (GB) chairman and managing director, said, "Unlike most other pipelines servicing this important market, the Symphony pipeline project will be an open-access contract carrier."
The proposed 675 km dry natural gas pipeline would run from the Brae-Miller complex in the UK North Sea to the Bacton terminal in Suffolk, northeast of London, and is expected to move some 900 MMcfd.
The pipeline would pass through the Marathon-operated UK Brae fields complex and pass near the UK Miller and Britannia complexes. Those installations are among the largest gas processing and transportation facilities in the UK North Sea.
The Brae and Heimdal facilities have significant compression and processing capacity, and their close proximity to the Norwegian-UK border would help in gathering new gas supplies and could in time act as price reference points, Marathon said.
Centrica PLC, a UK-based natural gas retail marketer and producer, agreed to support the project as a potential purchaser of the transported gas.