Why we are in the mess that we are in?

coffeehound

Does anyone know why the 'Rough' storage facility was closed down in 2017?  Was it a case of 'we're going Green now, so no more investment in FF infrastructure.'  

One thing that Covid has shown is that money can be found when it's needed.  If only £20bn could have been found some years back to build a new nuclear station rather than glacially slow and ultimately fruitless roundabouts with foreign investers including the Chinese of all people, we could have been more self sufficient and, indeed, Green.

Verdigris

I should think the money that has been spaffed on HS2, to date, would have built the Severn Barrage. Something between 5 and 10% of our present consumption, predictably and carbon free (barring embedded carbon in construction - but that would be mitigated fairly quickly).

QrizB

coffeehound said:

Does anyone know why the 'Rough' storage facility was closed down in 2017?  Was it a case of 'we're going Green now, so no more investment in FF infrastructure.' 

The reports at the time were:

On 19 June 2017, the Centrica board approved CSL’s recommendation that it could not continue to operate the Rough gas storage facility as a storage facility and should seek all necessary consents to produce all recoverable gas from the field. CSL’s recommendation was based on:

• the results of CSL’s independent well testing program (conducted between March 2015 and June 2017) which demonstrated that the Rough wells are susceptible to a range of unpredictable age-related failures and any return to injection operations would pose an unacceptable health and safety risk. Further, the offshore platforms and onshore Easington terminal are also showing substantial age-related deterioration;
  

• (b) the only technically viable option for reducing the risk associated with injection operations using the current Rough wells and offshore and onshore assets to an acceptable low level (‘as low as reasonably practical’ - ALARP) is to abandon the existing Rough wells and drill new wells into the Rough field and to substantially rebuild the offshore and onshore assets; and
  

• making the asset safe for injection operations in this way is not economic.

Taken from this document.

Reinstating Rough is estimated at £1.6Bn per this article.