NAFTA continues expanding its know-how in the United Kingdom

Entering into the British market has strengthened the company’s underground gas storage sector position in Europe. Today, NAFTA operates and develops facilities providing more than 64 TWh of storage capacity in several European countries, contributing significantly toward secure gas supplies. Humbly Grove was purchased by EP UK Investments Ltd, which along with NAFTA is a member of the EPH energy group, and has been added to its portfolio. NAFTA had earlier managed the acquisition of the underground storage facility for EPH in the role of technical advisor.

The closure in June 2017 for safety reasons of Rough, an underground storage facility that had been operated by Centrica Storage Ltd, cost the country altogether about 3.2 billion m3, a substantial part of its storage capacity. Humbly Grove is located close to Alton, a city in Hampshire about 50 kilometers southwest of London. Following the closure of Rough, Humbly Grove is now one of the largest natural gas storage facilities in the UK, with a working capacity of 243.5 million m3 of natural gas that accounts for around 14% of its total storage capacity. Therefore, its impact on the security of the UK’s gas supply is significant.

According to available data, the UK's current storage capacity fluctuates around 1.7 billion m3, with a major portion (1.3 billion m3) in salt caverns. The remainder (0.4 billion m3) is stored in injected gas and crude oil reservoirs. One of these two storage facilities is at Humbly Grove, where gas is stored in geological structures at a field still pumping crude oil, so increasing its productivity. NAFTA has almost 50 years of experience operating underground storage facilities at productive gas and oil fields.

There is a direct connection to the transmission network operated by National Grid plc and Humbly Grove is also able to respond to changes in requirements within two hours, making it more attractive in terms of business opportunities that come from volatility in gas prices and price differences between winter and summer. It also simplifies trades at Britain's virtual trading point. The daily maximum injection volume has reached 89 GWh per day and the storage facility is producing 79 GWh open flow a day, covering about 3% of the UK’s daily gas consumption.

NAFTA’s expansion strategy includes actively searching for suitable reservoirs, where it is able to utilize its existing underground storage experience as it diversifies sales of storage capacities across several businesses.

It is further passing know-how and providing underground storage engineering, technical and service skills in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The company is applying its expert experience to its Slovak complexes at Láb UGS and Láb IV UGS, operated by Pozagas a.s., as well as in the neighboring Czech Republic at the Dolní Bojanovice UGS. In 2019, a NAFTA subsidiary expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of three storage facilities in Bavaria - Inzenham, Wolfersberg and Breitbrunn/Eggstätt - and successfully continued its expansion into the operation of underground gas storage facilities and in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.