UK Oil & Gas is to pursue a site west of Weymouth in Dorset as a potential underground hydrogen storage facility, after preliminary project designs confirmed it would have advantages over another potential site in Portland.
The company said DEEP.KBB GmbH had completed preliminary project design for its wholly owned subsidiary, UK Energy Storage. The Weymouth site comprises 24 salt caverns 1330m deep, which would have 12% more storage than Portland. Hydrogen withdrawal and injection rates could provide up to 2.9 times the annual cycling capacity of Portland, and using a “cushion gas” operating scheme would reduce project development costs (CAPEX) by around £450 million, making the total 36% lower than Portland. The Weymouth site is also
closer to the planned H2 Connect hydrogen trunk pipeline, between South Dorset, the UK hydrogen transmission pipeline system (Project Union) and hydrogen clusters in the South, East Coast and Northwest.
UKOG said it intends to apply for government revenue support for its strongest hydrogen storage projects and South Dorset’s potentially significant increased revenue potential and lower cost “renders it more economically competitive than Portland”. In a strategic decision it will pursue revenue support for South Dorset and a project in East Yorkshire and will no longer pursue the Portland project.
It said that the new South Dorset hydrogen storage project will play a flagship role in the Company’s activities to help the decarbonisation of the UK energy system, the Portland Energy Hub, the pan-Dorset economic framework and regional Solent Cluster.