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AMEC awarded FEED for £600m Gateway underground gas storage project

London, United Kingdom (21 January 2010) - AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, along with Parsons Brinckerhoff and Senergy, has been appointed by Gateway Storage Company to undertake the front-end engineering design (FEED) for both the offshore and onshore elements of the £600 million Gateway offshore underground gas storage scheme.

The Gateway storage scheme will be located in the East Irish Sea, approximately 25 kilometres (15 miles) offshore, south west of Barrow-in-Furness. The current phase of the project will provide 1.5 billion cubic metres of storage capacity, with the possibility of expansion in the future.

The work over the next 12 months will support a commitment to construction of the facility at the end of 2010 and enable the commencement of gas storage services for the UK market in 2014.

The Gateway offshore gas storage development will use offshore caverns and will enable gas to be delivered, stored and then returned to the UK´s national transmission system, providing a more flexible and secure energy supply. 

'I am delighted that the award of this contract demonstrates our all round energy capabilities' said Neil Bruce, Executive Director of AMEC. 'This challenging and ground-breaking project couples our considerable FEED expertise on traditional offshore projects with our leading process capability"

Andrew Stacey, Director of Gateway Storage said: "The detailed engineering design work, and the tender process for the main construction contracts that will follow later this year, will support a commitment to construction at the end of this year and the first storage services to start during 2014. We are delighted to have the depth of experience that AMEC, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Senergy offer us and look forward to working with them in order to deliver the much needed Gateway facility."

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Enquiries to:

AMEC plc +44 (0) 20 7539 5800

Sue Scholes, Director of Communications

Nicola-Jane Brooks, Investor Relations

AMEC plc

AMEC (LSE: AMEC) is a focused supplier of high-value consultancy, engineering and project management services to the world's natural resources, nuclear, clean energy, water and environmental sectors. With annual revenues of over £2.6 billion, AMEC designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets for its customers. AMEC's Natural Resources, Power & Process and Earth & Environmental businesses employ almost 22,000 people in around 40 countries worldwide. 

amec.com

The Gateway project:

The £600m storage facility will add new capacity equal to approximately 30% of current UK storage capacity, sufficient to meet five days of Britain's average gas demand.  

Gateway will be built in salt caverns approximately 750m beneath the surface of the seabed and located 15 miles offshore, south west of Barrow-in-Furness. The Gateway facility will be connected to the National Gas Transmission Scheme (NTS) via a new pipeline to a gas compression station adjacent to the existing Morecambe gas terminals at Barrow. 

Gateway Storage (www.gatewaystorage.co.uk) secured consent from the UK Government in November 2008 and from Barrow Council in June 2008, and a site licence agreement from the Crown Estate in 2007.

Gateway Storage is a company that was formed to develop the gas storage project and is managed by Stag Energy. Stag Energy (www.stagenergy.com) is an independent company, headquartered in Edinburgh. The company, established in 2002, has extensive experience of managing the development, construction and operations of gas storage and power generation projects in the UK and overseas.