Miantenance at South Morecambe field
Centrica PLC
Maintenance at Centrica's Morecambe field
Centrica plc confirms that its subsidiary, Hydrocarbon Resources Limited (HRL)
has today taken its South Morecambe field out of production for a period of
extended maintenance.
Following the publication of the Interim Report by Centrica Storage Limited on
24 April regarding the incident involving a cooler unit at the Rough platform in
February, HRL has decided to bring forward and extend its normal summer
maintenance period at South Morecambe. The field uses coolers of a similar
design and following an initial inspection, with employee safety a priority, HRL
intends to carry out remedial works on those units in order to remove this
element of risk. This will enhance the integrity of the asset before the key
winter demand period. It is expected that operations will recommence at the
beginning of September 2006 when the field will return to full production
capacity.
At an earnings level the financial impact on Centrica of the outage is expected
to be immaterial after rescheduling production profiles for the balance of the
year due to the combination of the upstream marginal tax rate and seasonally low
wholesale gas prices. Centrica has secured from the market the gas required to
meet British Gas customer demand during this period.
The North Morecambe field is currently undergoing its regular annual maintenance
which takes place in May and is expected to return to normal operations by the
end of May.
Enquiries:
Centrica Investor Relations +44 (0) 1753 494900 ir@centrica.co.uk
Centrica Media Relations +44 (0) 1753 494085 media@centrica.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
South Morecambe's peak daily production capability, of around 20 million cubic
metres (mcm) of gas, forms less than 5% of the UK market's seasonal normal
winter day demand of over 400mcm
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