The North Morecambe Onshore Terminal

The North Morecambe Area Development is located in the Irish Sea approximately 38 kilometres south-west of Barrow. It consists of three separate fields with estimated recoverable reserves of 1 Tcf. Feasibility and conceptual design studies were carried out on the North Morecambe Field between 1985 and 1990. They focused initially on minimum offshore processing, and therefore minimum manning, and on using the spare capacity on the existing South Morecambe Terminal. They showed that using South Morecambe was not only the most expensive option but also that it had the highest technical and security of supply risk.  A further study showed that the surplus capacity on the South Morecambe complex would be better utilised in enhancing the production of South Morecambe itself.The studies concluded that the construction and operation of a new greenfield site adjacent to the South Morecambe Terminal with a not normally manned platform and all processing being carried out onshore was the best option. This entailed using a "wet" sealine with methanol acting both as a hydrate inhibitor a carrier for a corrosion inhibitor. To meet National Transmission specifications all the carbon dioxide some of the nitrogen had to be removed from the gas. The more conventional conditioning requirements of separation, condensate stabilisation and sweetening, hydrocarbon and water dewpoint control, compression and methanol recovery were also required, making North Morecambe the most complex gas processing terminal in Europe.