InfraStrata has awarded a contract to British construction firm Costain to execute the surface element of the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for the Islandmagee gas storage project in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Financial terms of the contract given by the UK-based gas storage company were not disclosed.
Costain is expected to begin its work soon to allow InfraStrata to perform the surface element of the FEED program this year, under the rules and timescales of the funding grant from the European Union.
InfraStrata CEO Adrian Pocock said: “We are delighted to confirm that we have now signed this key contract with Costain, who have been immensely supportive in helping us to reach this significant milestone in the development of the salt cavern gas storage facility in Islandmagee, Northern Ireland.”
The Islandmagee gas storage project is an underground gas storage facility in the Islandmagee peninsula, located between Larne and Carrickfergus on the east coast of County Antrim.
The project company Islandmagee Storage (IMSL), owned 90% by InfraStrata and 10% by Moyle Energy Investments, plans to develop up to eight caverns for the gas storage project. Each of the caverns will have a diameter of about 80m and a height of 150m.
According to IMSL, the caverns will be designed to store up to a total of up to 500 million cubic meters of gas in Permian salt beds nearly 1,300m below Larne Lough.
IMSL expects the Islandmagee gas storage project to contribute significantly towards the security of gas supplies for the entire island of Ireland which relies on gas for nearly 60% of its power generation. Most of this gas is currently imported through a single pipeline from Scotland.
Upon its completion, the Islandmagee gas storage project will have the capability to store enough gas to meet the peak demand of the island of Ireland for up to 15 days.