Aberdeen's Wood to work on 'next chapter' for massive UK gas field

Wood, the Aberdeen-headquartered energy and engineering services group, is to work on the “next chapter” for one of the UK’s largest gas fields after securing a major $130 million (£96m) contract.

The five-year services contract will see Wood tap into its skills base to extend field life, lower costs, and reduce late life carbon intensity across the offshore assets in the East Irish Sea and the Barrow onshore gas terminal on the north-west coast of England.

The firm said it had entered into a new agreement with Spirit Energy to partner on the delivery of “late life solutions” for the Morecambe Bay gas field.

The five-year services contract will see Wood tap into its skills base to extend field life, lower costs, and reduce late life carbon intensity across the offshore assets in the East Irish Sea and the Barrow onshore gas terminal on the north-west coast of England.

The contract will employ about 130 people across the offshore facilities and onshore terminal and a small support team in Aberdeen.

Craig Shanaghey, Wood’s president of operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the agreement would see the firm apply “decades of experience in intelligent operations, maintenance and integrity solutions to deliver a sustainable next chapter for the field”.

He added: “Our shared ambition is to leverage the greatest value from the Morecambe Hub in its late life phase, by focusing on driving down operational costs and creating opportunities to extend field life.”

John Cowie, Morecambe Hub asset director at Spirit Energy, said: “The Morecambe Hub has produced gas for the UK for more than 30 years, and remains a key asset in our portfolio as we continue to maximise economic recovery from the area.

“There is still more we can do to extend Morecambe’s field life while reducing its emissions and contribute to the UK’s net zero targets, and we look forward to working with Wood on both of these goals.”

Last week, Wood kicked off the new year with the securing of a key contract in China.

The firm, which employs some 45,000 people globally, agreed a $120m deal with Sinopec Hainan Refining and Chemical to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to expand its refinery development in the south of the country.

Once completed, the project will produce up to one million tonnes of ethylene derivatives and refined oil on an annual basis and is expected to boost economic growth in China’s downstream sector by more than $14 billion.

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