National Transmission System

The United Kingdom's National Transmission System (NTS) is the network of gas pipelines that supply gas to about forty power stations and large industrial users from natural gas terminals situated on the coast and to gas distribution companies that supply commercial and domestic users.

The National Transmission System (NTS) originated in the construction during 1962-3 of the 200 mile (320 km) long high-pressure methane pipeline from Canvey Island to Leeds. Imported liquified natural gas (LNG) from Algeria was regasified at the Canvey terminal and supplied to the pipeline, this provided eight of the twelve Area Boards with access to natural gas. The gas was initially used to manufacture town gas either as a feedstock in gas reforming processes or to enrich lean gases such as that produced by the Lurgi coal gasification process.

The pipeline was 18-inch (460 mm) in diameter and operated at 1,000 pounds per square inch (69 bar). The pipeline had 150 miles (240 km) of spur lines, ranging from 6 ⅝ to 14 inches (168–355 mm) in diameter, to East Greenwich, Bromley, Slough, Reading, Hitchin, Dunstable, Coleshill, Sheffield, and Manchester. The Gas Council was responsible for this £10 million co-operative scheme and the construction details were a joint effort of the distribution engineers of the Area Boards.

LNG had first been imported to Canvey from Louisiana in February 1959 and piped to Romford gas works as feedstock to a reforming plant.

Natural gas was discovered on the UK continental shelf in 1965 and production started in 1967. The development of offshore natural gas fields is shown in the following table. Shore terminals were built to receive, process, blend and distribute the gas.

With the assured availability of natural gas a government White Paper on fuel policy in November 1967 proposed that natural gas should be immediately and more extensively exploited The Gas Council and Area Boards began a ten-year programme to convert all users and appliances to operate on natural gas and consequently to discontinue the manufacture of town gas at local gasworks. In a pilot scheme users on Canvey Island had been converted to natural gas in 1966.

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