The Anonymous Widower

Shell Resurrects Plans For Rejected North Sea Gasfield

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.

This is the first two paragraphs.

Shell has submitted a revised plan for a North Sea gasfield that was rejected by regulators on environmental grounds last year.

The oil and gas major is seeking to develop the Jackdaw field, about 155 miles east of Aberdeen, which it says could produce 6.5 per cent of UK domestic gas output at peak — enough to heat 1.4 million homes. It hopes to start production in 2025 at the field, which would keep producing until 2033.

Other points in the article include.

• The platform would be unmanned.
• One of the problems with the field is that the gas naturally contains a lot of carbon dioxide.
• Shell plans to capture and store this carbon dioxide.
• The gas would be brought to shore using a nineteen mile pipeline to the Shearwater platform.

Surprisingly, the Shearwater platform is connected by the 295 mile SEAL pipeline to the Bacton terminal in Norfolk. But then Bacton is connected by the BBL pipeline to the Netherlands.

• There are depleted gas fields connected to Bacton, that can be used to store the carbon dioxide from the Jackdaw gas field.
• Shell manage the BBL pipeline.
• Shell are sitting in the middle with gas, that can be sold to the highest bidder.

It could be good for Shell without a great deal of expenditure on infrastructure.

In the short term, Jackdaw could make up our gas shortage, but as we start to blend wind-produced hydrogen into the gas network, we can export the surplus gas to the Continent. Shell might have plans for other gas fields to participate in the export of British gas to Germany, that has been replaced by wind-produced hydrogen.

It would be an interesting point, as to who would be responsible for the carbon dioxide produced by Jackdaw’s gas, that is burned in Germany. I suspect it will be the Germans.

In the long-term, when Shearwater and Jackdaw have given up all their gas, I wonder if Shell’s plans could be.

• Surround the platforms serving these fields with floating wind farms.
• Put a giant electrolyser on the Shearwater platform and bring hydrogen to the shore in the SEAL pipeline.
• Distribute the hydrogen from Bacton to the UK or through the BBL pipeline to the Continent.

I feel that Shell could do very nicely thank you out of the Jackdaw gas-field.

But it is also a plan, that produces a lot of energy, without emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide.

March 19, 2022 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Hydrogen | Bacton Gas Terminal, Jackdaw Gas Field, Natural Gas, Offshore Wind Power, Shell, Wind Power