The Rough storage facility will not restart injection operations in the 2017/18 storage year due to safety concerns.
The future of the Rough storage facility is in doubt as Centrica Storage Ltd (CSL) has confirmed the site will not be available for injections in the 2017/18 storage year. The decision has been made following safety and failure tests, as well as extensive discussions and CSL have deemed this to be the correct measure at this time.
Results from the well testing program showed that the facility cannot safely re-commence injection operations in the 2017/18 storage year. The tests have discovered that a number of wells have potential containment failure modes, due to the age of the site. Following discussions, independent technical advisers concluded that this is the correct action to take, at present.
The current phase of the well testing program will conclude soon as the condition of 2/3 of the wells has been established. However, further testing and analysis will take place on a number of wells to allow CSL to make a decision on the future of the site’s commercial operations.
Additional testing will be done in conjunction with further asset integrity work and assessments to ensure any operations which take place beyond the 2017/18 storage year are safe.
CSL confirmed that withdrawal services will still be provided for the 2016/17 storage year.
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