50 new jobs thanks to Wood winning hydrogen storage contract

Wood has signed a contract with Centrica Energy Storage (CES) to redevelop the UK’s Rough field to prepare it for future hydrogen storage.

The Rough reservoir, located in the southern North Sea, has been used to safely store natural gas for over 30 years and could meet around half of the UK’s hydrogen storage needs.

The front-end engineering contract includes new pipelines, a new maintenance-free installation, and onshore injection facilities at the Easington Gas Terminal.

The award creates around 50 new roles in the UK.

Steve Nicol, executive chairman of operations at Wood, said: “We are proud to be part of this innovative redevelopment project, which is crucial to both the UK’s long-term energy security and industrial decarbonisation commitments.

“Hydrogen, alongside offshore wind and carbon capture and storage, is critical to the UK’s net zero ambition and will be key to decarbonising industry, transport and energy.”

Martin Scargill, managing director of CES, said: “We have huge ambitions for the future of Rough and our partnership with Wood is an important step towards realizing these ambitions.

“We are prepared to invest in future-proofing this key asset, provided a regulatory support model is agreed to underpin investment in UK gas storage.”

CES recently announced that it wants the Rough deposit to become the largest long-term hydrogen storage facility in the world, but the final investment decision on the project still depends on the UK Government’s support model that would underpin gas storage investment.

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