Operating partner for one of the UK’s critical gas systems

We consume gas by heating homes, turning on the oven or enjoying a hot shower. The gas we use to make this possible has travelled hundreds of miles and been thoroughly processed to be delivered safely to your home.

The Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) system, located at St Fergus, north of Aberdeen, secures ongoing, critical UK gas supply, alongside numerous other gas terminals dotted across the UK.

Gas is processed at SAGE, then fed into the UK’s National Transmission System, providing a significant proportion of the UK’s total gas supply.

The scope

Since 2017, Wood has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the SAGE system alongside Ancala Midstream Acquisitions Limited (Ancala Midstream).

The system transports gas through the 323km SAGE pipeline between the northern part of the Central North Sea to the SAGE terminal, where it is processed on behalf of North Sea gas producers.

The facility has an integrated gas transportation and processing system throughput of around 465 million cubic feet of gas per day: enough power to heat over 3.3 million homes.

Ultimately, Wood is responsible for ensuring daily production targets are met, ensuring critical energy supply to the nation.

The solution

Since Wood started operating the site in 2017, these targets have always been met. Covid-19 presented challenges to production with reduced manpower and extra safety precautions. Wood overcame these challenges, continuing to safeguard the energy demands of homes, hospitals and other crucial services when we needed them the most.

Working as one to ensure the longevity of SAGE

Wood and Ancala Midstream work together as operating partners in an open and collaborative relationship, resulting in enhanced value for both partners and informed decision making.

With continued reliance on hydrocarbons for some decades to come, a longevity plan for SAGE is essential. Wood is driving a rationalisation project which delivers a distinct set of options and activities to position the SAGE plant for a further 20 successful years of production.

Driving decarbonisation

Although we are still reliant on hydrocarbons, enabling sustainable operations is vital in the drive towards net-zero. To support the longevity of SAGE against the backdrop of the energy transition, Wood is delivering an energy management plan, investigating and presenting the carbon reduction opportunities available to pursue at the site.

This work feeds into the Oil and Gas UK (OEUK) Methane Working Group, of which Wood is a member. This initiative encourages industry to work collaboratively to develop a range of potential carbon reduction solutions, with a target to half industry methane emissions by 2030.

Wood has also committed to reducing carbon emissions at SAGE by 40% by 2030. As duty holder, Wood purchases electricity to power the site. Reviewing the electricity procurement strategy and adopting cleaner power generation by switching to a renewable tariff is one step towards SAGE’s carbon reduction goal.

Since the second quarter of 2021, the electricity used to power SAGE has been generated entirely by wind and hydro, which means the carbon emissions associated with powering the site have radically reduced.

Quick, effective reaction to challenges

If an issue is identified at SAGE, the team is poised to act to avoid any interruption to production and thus, gas supply. When a minor hydrocarbon emission is detected, the implementation of swift and effective mitigations and monitoring are put into place.

For example, to provide a permanent solution in one such incidence, Wood designed and fabricated a clamp to be fixed to an insulated joint ensuring it was fully sealed, made possible by early detection and working directly with the client team.

Due to the challenging nature of the issue, the engineering team was able to provide a technical-based solution which resulted in a unique design and specification to create the clamp. The size and scale of the clamp, weighing 16 tonnes, is believed to be the largest non-subsea related clamp installed by Wood and its contractor.

The clamp was safely and successfully installed and is now a life-of-field repair that will be in place for around 25 years.

The result

Today, Wood continues to plan innovative ways to secure critical production and accelerate SAGE’s progress to its climate goals.

Wood’s partnership with Ancala runs deep, aligning across core values and working as one to realise ambitions for SAGE, strengthening our relationship.

We are incredibly proud of what we have managed to achieve so far throughout our duty holdership across production, efficiency and emissions reduction – all while maintaining a sharp focus on safety.

Our people working on duty holder contracts go above and beyond original contract scopes, embedding themselves in the site, working alongside our clients as one team to make positive changes and improve site production, safety and sustainability.

Learn more about our duty holder services