U.K. Issues Gateway License for Gas Storage Under Irish Sea

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Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change issued a license to Gateway Storage Co. to build a natural-gas storage site in salt caverns under the Irish Sea as the country seeks to increase its fuel reserves.

It’s the first license awarded under new regulations designed to encourage the construction of more gas-storage sites, the department said in an e-mailed statement.

“We are now fully engaged with the project’s engineering design and are targeting 2014 for the start of commercial storage operations,” Gateway Storage Chairman George Grant said in the statement.

The U.K. can store only 5 percent of its annual gas demand, compared with France’s 18 percent and Germany’s 20 percent, according to figures from Centrica Plc, Britain’s biggest energy supplier. That exacerbates price volatility at times of high demand or when supplies are curtailed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aEAEb75EZCWQ