Return of Total’s St Fergus gas site delayed again

Maintenance at Total’s St Fergus receiving terminal was today extended by a further two days, cutting up to 11.5mn m³/d from the UK system’s gas import capacity.

The terminal has been off line since 4 September for annual maintenance. It was originally scheduled to return on the morning of 26 September, but the outage was extended by two days at the last moment. This further two-day extension was announced just hours before St Fergus’ rescheduled return.

The terminal receives gas from a number of UK fields including Frigg, Alwyn North and Bruce but also from the Norwegian continental shelf through the Vesterled pipeline. Vesterled’s maintenance ended on 26 September but so far no deliveries through to St Fergus have been made.

An average of 11.7mn m³/d was received at the St Fergus site in the month before the maintenance outage, with Vesterled accounting for 2.55mn m³/d of that. The terminal received 14.2mn m³/d in September last year, although this accelerated to 28mn m³/d during the winter, reaching a high of almost 50mn m³ in mid-December.