| wales
ON THE CREST OF A NEW ENERGY WAVE
A
new, third wave of energy companies are locating in Pembrokeshire to exploit the combination of the County’s natural resources, supply chain companies, skilled labour and access to the National Grid. This builds on the County’s sixty plus years of experience in playing an important role in providing a significant proportion of the UK’s energy needs.
The First Wave – Oil processing Pembrokeshire’s first involvement with the energy sector began back in the 1960s. At that time the oil companies were expanding and seeking coastal sites for large oil refineries, they soon recognised the potential offered of the Milford Haven Waterway that had been described by Admiral Horatio Nelson described as the next best natural harbour in the world to Trincomalee in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). These excellent deep water port facilities were ideal for the “super tankers” to dock to off load their precious cargos. The oil companies then established a number of oil refineries and depots along the shores of the Milford Haven waterway. This in turn led to the development of a sophisticated engineering supply chain to build and maintain the large and highly sophisticated plants that were being built. With the introduction of these oil refineries and the guaranteed supply of suitable refined oil products a huge 2000MW oil fired power station was
developed at Pembroke and this was connected to the National Grid. This facility opened in 1968 and was operational for some 30 years.
The Second Wave – Importing, storing and distributing Liquid Natural Gas But things were already changing as in addition to the closure of the oil fired Power Station the number of oil refineries in the UK was reducing. In Pembrokeshire, the Esso Refinery closed, then the Gulf refinery closed and was converted into a “tank farm” where crude and refined products are stored and more recently the Murco refinery closed and was converted into a storage and distribution facility. These closures, mirrored by others throughout the UK, now leaves the Valero Pembroke Refinery as one of the last six operational refineries in the country. The vacant former oil refinery sites with
excellent deep water access attracted LNG operators who were looking to supplement dwindling North Sea gas supplies with facilities where Liquid Natural Gas could be imported, stored and then regassified and fed into the county’s high pressure gas network. Over £2 billion of investment saw two LNG plants established along the Milford Haven waterway together with a 48 inch high pressure pipeline to Gloucester to connect them to the UK’s high pressure network. South Hook LNG, the larger of the two
plants is owned and operated by a partnership between Exxon and Qatar Petroleum. To deliver the LNG, which is natural gas cooled to -162C when it is reduced to 1/600th of the volume of the gas, a new fleet of modern LNG tankers was designed and built.
South Hook LNG together with its near neighbour Dragon LNG combine to have the capability to provide around a third of the UK’s total gas needs and in periods of extremely cold weather when gas is in high demand a constant stream of ships can be seen docking and discharging their cargos. Echoing the pattern that saw a power station built in the 1960s to benefit from supplies of oil the development of two LNG terminals led to the development of the UK largest Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power station. This 2000MW power station developed by RWE being hailed as the most efficient of its type in Europe. As a result of this investment by 2012
Pembrokeshire was providing an estimated 25% of the UK’s energy in the form of gas, refined oil products (Petrol, Diesel and Aviation Fuel) and electricity.
The Third Wave – Marine Energy The desire to replace hydrocarbon derived energy with energy from renewable sources has opened a new opportunities for Pembrokeshire and once again the deep waters of the Haven Waterway are at the heart of this new energy revolution. Since the early 2000s Pembrokeshire has been positioning and promoting itself as a location for the development of a Marine Energy industry and, after playing second fiddle to Scotland for many years, Wales is now beginning to quickly realise this objective. Pembrokeshire is at the forefront of the
Welsh push and is now attracting developers to build and deploy test devices in both the Haven Waterway and around the county’s coast. The prime benefits Pembrokeshire can offer marine energy companies are; • Excellent maritime energy resources in the form of - WAVES that build up energy from the Atlantic - Tidal flow, especially around the islands off the county’s west coast - Tidal range, with a maximum range of 7.34m in Milford Haven
An LNG tanker on the Milford Haven Waterway 44
• An experienced energy supply chain including mechanical and marine engineering companies
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MONTHLY 2017
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