Easington Gas Terminal

Easington Gas Terminal
Easington and Dimlington gas terminals
Shown within the East Riding of Yorkshire
Alternative names	Easington
General information
Type	Gas terminal
Location	Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU12 0TG
Coordinates	53°39′17″N 0°07′11″E / 53.65480°N 0.11978°E / 53.65480; 0.11978
Current tenants	Centrica Storage, Perenco-UK, Gassco
Completed	March 1967
Owner	Centrica Storage, Perenco-UK, Gassco
Technical details
Floor area	87.5 acres (Dimlington)

The Easington Gas Terminal is one of six main gas terminals in the UK, and is situated on the North Sea coast at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire and Dimlington. The other main gas terminals are at St Fergus, Aberdeenshire; Bacton, Norfolk; Teesside; Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire and Rampside gas terminal, Barrow, Cumbria. The whole site consists of four plants: two run by BP, one by Centrica and one by Gassco. The Easington Gas Terminals are protected by Ministry of Defence Police officers and are provided with resources by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.

BP Easington Terminal opened in March 1967. This was the first time that North Sea Gas had been brought ashore in the UK from the West Sole field. In 1980 British Gas purchased the field Rough and in 1983 began conversion to a storage field. BP Dimlington opened in October 1988. BP's Ravenspurn North field was added in 1990 and the Johnston field was added in 1994. The Easington Catchment Area was added in 2000, and the Juno development in 2003.

Britain's first oil rig, the Sea Gem, first discovered gas in the North Sea on 20 August 1965. It was not a large enough field, but at the time it was not even known that there was a large amount of gas under the North Sea. Unfortunately the rig sank in December later that year, when it capsized. The Forties and Brent oilfields were discovered later in 1970 and 1971 respectively.

Since October 2006, gas has been brought into the UK direct from the Norwegian Sleipner gas field via the Langeled pipeline, the world's longest subsea pipeline before the completion of the Nord Stream pipeline, owned by Gassco which itself is owned by the Kingdom of Norway.