Wood has been appointed integrated services partner by Centrica Storage for the company’s UK Southern North Sea operations.

The five-year contract includes the provision of engineering, procurement and construction solutions, operations and maintenance services, as well as project management services for the Rough gas field and the Easington Gas Terminal in East Yorkshire.

Rough, the UK’s largest natural gas storage site, was recently reopened to help bolster the UK’s energy security. Wood has been deploying its decades of experience in brownfield modifications to support the significant engineering designs and modifications required to enable the facility to store up to 30 billion cubic feet of gas ahead of this winter.

Wood’s scope also includes working with Centrica Storage to support their ambition to drive the UK’s clean energy transition by redeveloping Rough into the world’s biggest hydrogen storage facility.

To support the successful delivery of this contract, Wood will expand its engineering office in Hull, securing highly skilled jobs for around 100 local people. This expansion will also propel the company’s growth in the Humberside area, which has been identified as a key industrial hub in delivering the UK’s net-zero ambitions.

Ellis Renforth, Wood’s President of Operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “We are delighted to have secured this contract with our new client, Centrica Storage. Our teams will draw upon our extensive expertise in brownfield modifications and decarbonisation solutions to ensure efficient, reliable and responsible operations of the Rough gas field and Easington gas terminal, helping to strengthen the UK’s energy supply as well as enable the next phase of their energy transition journey.

“This award also brings an exciting opportunity to expand our operations in Hull and the Humberside area, working with local engineering talent and the supply chain to accelerate the delivery of energy solutions that will unlock a more secure and sustainable future for the region.”

Martin Scargill, Managing Director of Centrica Storage, said: “I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to the team at Wood who are joining us at a very important time. This is a long-term strategic partnership that will help us deliver our ambitious plans to provide energy resilience to the UK whilst driving forward the transition to net zero. Centrica Storage, Wood and our supply chain partners are committed to protecting and growing highly skilled jobs in the region.”

About Wood

Wood is a global leader in consulting and engineering across energy and the built environment, helping to unlock solutions to some of the world’s most critical challenges. We provide consulting, projects and operations solutions in more than 60 countries, employing around 40,000 people.

About Centrica

Centrica is a leading international energy services and solutions provider, founded on a 200-year heritage of serving people. Through our two customer-facing divisions, Centrica Consumer and Centrica Business, we supply energy, services and solutions to over 26 million customer accounts. We serve customers across the UK, Ireland, North America and Continental Europe through strong brands such as British Gas, supported by around 13,000 highly trained engineers and technicians. We are focused on satisfying the changing needs of our customers, enabling them to transition to a lower carbon future. Our aim is to reduce emissions in line with the Paris climate goals by 2030 and develop a path to net zero by 2050.

Energy Marketing and Trading is the trading and optimisation arm of Centrica plc. We are a leading provider of energy management and optimisation services to businesses, in addition to managing commodity risk and providing wholesale market access for the Centrica Group. We have over 14GW of capacity under contract in Europe, more than half of which is for renewable assets. We also continue to expand our global LNG business, having built a full range of LNG trading, optimisation and operations capability.