The Bacton Gas Terminal is a complex of six gas terminals within four sites located on the North Sea coast of North Norfolk in the United Kingdom. The sites are near Paston and between Bacton and Mundesley; the nearest town is North Walsham.
The other main UK gas terminals which receive gas from the UK continental shelf are at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire; Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire; Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire; CATS Terminal, Teesside; and Rampside gas terminal, Barrow, Cumbria.
History
The Bacton complex which covers an area of about 180 acres (73 ha) opened during 1968. It has a frontage of 1 km (3200 feet) along the cliff top. It was initially built by Shell-Esso, Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group, Amoco-Gas Council. Planning permission had been given on 16 June 1967 by Anthony Greenwood, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale. The Leman field began production on 13 August 1968 (joint Shell-Esso and joint Amoco-Gas Council), the Hewett field (Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group) began operations in July 1969 and the Indefatigable field (joint Shell-Esso and joint Amoco-Gas Council) began production in October 1971. Construction of the £5 million Phillips-Arpet plant began in April 1968. Gas from the Shell-Esso part of the Leman field was delivered to Bacton via a 34-mile-long pipeline. A 36-inch diameter 140-mile-long pipeline (Number 2 feeder main) costing £17 million was built by Italsider from Bacton to the National Transmission System near Rugby. When initially completed in 1968 the terminal had a total gas throughput capacity of per day at standard conditions. The Gas Council marketed the new North Sea gas as High Speed Gas.
Operation
The Bacton complex consists of six gas terminals. The terminals are: Shell Eni Perenco National Grid - feeding the National Transmission System (NTS) Interconnector UK (within the National Grid site) BBL (Bacton-Balgzand line) (within the Shell site)
Three of the terminals (Eni, Perenco and Shell) receive gas from Southern North Sea (SNS) and some Central North Sea (CNS) offshore gas fields. Initial gas processing, such as removal of free water, takes place on the offshore gas installations. At the terminals gas and condensate are received in slugcatchers (to separate gas and hydrocarbon liquids and condensed water), the gas is compressed if necessary, dehydrated using triethylene glycol, and chilled to achieve a specified hydrocarbon dewpoint. Sour gas (sulphurous) had previously been removed at the Eni site by amine gas treating, now decommissioned. Hydrocarbon condensate is stabilized and piped by the British Pipeline Agency along the route of the former North Walsham to Mundesley railway line to the North Walsham rail terminal and thence by rail to an oil refinery at Harwich Essex. Treated gas from the three terminals flows to the National Grid terminal located immediately to the south of the reception terminals. Two of the terminals (Interconnector and BBL) receive gas from, or deliver gas to, the gas networks of continental Europe. Manifolds within the National Grid terminal blend the gas and distribute it to the National Transmission System at around 1000 psig (69 bar).
The offshore reception terminals were originally run by Royal Dutch Shell-Esso, Phillips Petroleum-Arpet Group and Amoco-Gas Council. Amoco and BP announced they had merged in 1998 to form BP Amoco, the merged organisation changed its name to BP in 2001. Perenco took over the BP operations in September 2003. Tullow had begun operations in 2003 taking over the Phillips Petroleum terminal operations, ENI took over the Tullow Oil operations in December 2008.
Shell terminal
The Shell terminal, the most easterly of the three, receives gas and condensate from two offshore pipelines. These are a 55.7 km long 30-inch pipeline from the Leman 49/26AP offshore installation and a 73 km 24-inch pipeline from the Clipper PT installation. A mothballed 30-inch pipeline formally delivered gas from the Leman 49/26BT installation to Bacton. The terminal also receives gas from the long 34-inch SEAL Pipeline, which transports gas from the Shearwater and Elgin-Franklin gas fields in the Central North Sea. The SEAL Pipeline is the longest on the UK Continental Shelf. The Shell plant has a gas treatment capacity of per day at standard conditions and a condensate stabilization capacity of 8,000 barrels per day (1,270 m3/day). The gas hydrocarbon dewpoint is achieved by propane refrigeration. Truck loading facilities for condensate were originally provided. It employs 46 people and began operations in 1968. The BBL Pipeline terminal became operational in December 2006 and is located within the Shell terminal. The BBL terminal is operated, but not owned, by Shell.