St Fergus Gas Terminal

Wholly owned and operated by National Gas, the St Fergus Gas Terminal is fundamentally important to Great Britain’s energy system. Located on the North-East coast of Scotland, it provides access to gas from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and Norway, which it feeds into the gas National Transmission System (NTS). St Fergus regularly supplies between 25% and 50% of the country’s natural gas. The main terminal receives treated gas from three sub-terminals, currently owned by Shell, Ancala and North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP).

Bacton Gas Terminal

The Bacton Gas Terminal is a complex of five gas terminals across four sites, located on the North Sea coast of Norfolk. National Gas owns and operates one of these terminals, which feeds gas into the National Transmission System (NTS). Processed gas from two of the Bacton terminals flows directly to the National Gas terminal. These two terminals are owned and operated by Shell and Perenco. The other two terminals at Bacton (Interconnector and BBL) receive gas from the NTS and UKCS, and export it to networks of continental Europe. They also receive imported gas from continental Europe. Manifolds within the National Gas terminal blend the gas and distribute it to the NTS.

What is a gas terminal?

Natural gas terminals in the UK receive and store gas from UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and Norwegian offshore gas fields, and from continental European gas networks via undersea pipelines (interconnectors). 

Within a terminal, incoming gas is processed before being supplied to the gas National Transmission System (NTS), which carries gas to the majority of Great Britain. Processing involves removing impurities and contaminants from the raw natural gas – producing pipeline-quality gas that meets the specifications of the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations.  

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is also received into the GB gas network through key import terminals located at Milford Haven in South Wales and the Isle of Grain in Southeast England. LNG is an increasingly important supply for Great Britain and Europe. LNG is received from global sources, predominantly from the USA and Qatar.*

*At the time of writing (June 2024)