Member Article

New operator at St. Fergus Gas Terminal

Energy and process industry specialist, the px Group, has commenced a long term operations and maintenance (O&M) contract at the St. Fergus Gas Terminal, about 30 miles north of Aberdeen.

The agreement is with the operating subsidiary of North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP), which has acquired Total E&P UK’s interest in the site in a deal which also includes the Frigg UK (FUKA) offshore pipeline and Total’s 67% interest in the Shetland Island Regional Gas Export System (SIRGES).

The terminal is a three-train processing plant, which is supplied by the 220 mile FUKA pipeline and the 145 mile SIRGES pipeline, which has recently been commissioned with first flows of Laggan/Tormore gas from West of Shetlands. St. Fergus is also the location of the landfall for the 225 mile Norwegian Vesterled pipeline.

Chief Executive Officer with px, Ian Clifford, said: “We are delighted to have been selected as the O&M partner for one of the UK’s largest gas processing operations. This significantly grows and strengthens our business and is likely to create additional employment opportunities over the coming months.

“As a business working in high hazard industries, we make the safety of our people and the protection of the environment our top priorities. So the most important thing now is to ensure a safe and smooth transition of operations at St. Fergus and incident free operation in the years ahead.

“We also aim to demonstrate the competency and skills of our team to provide professional O&M services to the oil and gas industry. We look forward to maximising the efficiency of the plant and extending our operations in Aberdeen through the engineering and commercial management services we can offer.”

As part of the process, 73 members of Total E&P UK staff and contractors who either work at the St. Fergus terminal, or are Aberdeen based mid-stream specialists, have transferred to work for and with the px Group.

At the same time as taking on operations at St. Fergus, px has extended its O&M contract at the Teesside Gas Processing Plant – also owned by NSMP.

Headquartered at Stockton on Teesside, the px Group has 14 years - and its senior people over 20 years - experience of managing high hazard facilities. It operates a further ten sites around the UK, including fossil fuel and renewable power generation plants and fuel storage depots.

Currently employing almost 400 people, it is a fully integrated energy infrastructure solutions business and also provides energy management and engineering consultancy services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .