Latest news with #IsleOfGrain
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
British Gas owner Centrica to buy Grain LNG terminal for £1.66bn
National Grid has agreed to sell one of its major gas facilities, Grain LNG, for £1.66bn to a group that includes British Gas owner Centrica and Energy Capital Partners (ECP).The sale still needs approval from regulators and the government. If approval is received, National Grid expects the transaction to be complete by the end of the LNG is the largest place in the UK for receiving liquefied natural gas - which is gas that's been cooled into a liquid so it's easier to facility, based on the Isle of Grain in Kent, plays an important role in keeping the UK's gas supply stable. National Grid's chief executive John Pettigrew said this deal is part of the company's plan to focus more on electricity and gas networks, after already selling its renewable energy business, NG Renewables, earlier this Pettigrew said the sale "marks another successful step in delivering National Grid's previously communicated strategy to streamline our business and focus on networks."National Grid is moving away from owning energy production sites and instead wants to concentrate on building and maintaining the pipes and wires that carry electricity and sale of Grain LNG would add to Centrica's infrastructure portfolio which already includes assets such as the Rough gas storage facility - the largest gas storage facility in the facilities like Grain LNG gives Centrica more control over gas supplies, which could help protect against global price shocks like the ones seen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. ECP, meanwhile, has experience in investing in energy-related projects that support the shift to cleaner and ECP are both part of private investment firm Brigepoint UK government is aiming for a significant increase in green energy, particularly aiming for a clean power system by sources considered to be clean include solar and wind.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Centrica frontrunner to buy National Grid's LNG terminal in $2 billion deal, FT reports
Aug 13 (Reuters) - British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L), opens new tab and Energy Capital Partners are in talks to buy the Isle of Grain LNG terminal from National Grid (NG.L), opens new tab in a deal valued at about 1.5 billion pounds ($2.03 billion), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Centrica declined to comment on the FT report, while National Grid and Energy Capital did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments. National Grid, which owns and operates Britain's high-voltage electricity transmission network, had said last year it was seeking to sell its Grain LNG terminal, Europe's largest such facility, as part of its efforts to streamline operations. FT said a deal could be announced shortly. Centrica announced in July it had signed an agreement to acquire a 15% equity stake in Britain's new nuclear project, Sizewell C. The company also reported a drop in its first-half profit. Hong Kong's CK Infrastructure Holdings ( opens new tab was among the interested parties for the terminal, but has reportedly dropped its pursuit, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. LNG has become a vital source of gas for Europe, especially after the Russia-Ukraine conflict and as the subsequent Western sanctions on Russia disrupted energy markets. The resulting price surge continues to weigh on British consumers. ($1 = 0.7373 pounds)
Times
07-08-2025
- Business
- Times
Hong Kong firm close to sealing £2bn purchase of LNG terminal
Hong Kong's CK Infrastructure is closing in on a £2 billion deal to acquire the Isle of Grain liquefied natural gas terminal from National Grid. The acquisition of Europe's largest LNG terminal would expand CKI's footprint in Britain's critical utilities infrastructure, adding to its holdings in electricity and gas networks and in the water sector. National Grid announced in May last year that it intended to sell Grain LNG as part of efforts to streamline its business and raise cash to fund investment in its core energy networks. It kicked off the sale process in April and CKI is now the lead bidder, Bloomberg reported, adding that a deal could be announced within days. The LNG terminal on the Isle of Grain in Kent is a vital part of Britain's energy infrastructure, the biggest of three terminals that enable the import of gas from around the world, superchilled to liquid form for transport by tanker. The site spans more than 600 acres and is capable of importing 15 million tonnes of gas a year, or a fifth of UK gas demand. It has four giant LNG storage tanks, each larger than the Royal Albert Hall. National Grid reported adjusted operating profits of £150 million from the business in the year to March 2025. The FTSE 100 energy group is seeking to invest £60 billion over five years in its energy networks in Britain and America. • Is this a good time to buy shares in National Grid? The sales process attracted interest from a large number of potential buyers, said also to have included British Gas owner Centrica. National Grid said in May that it expected 'to announce a transaction later this year'. CKI is part of the business empire founded by the billionaire Li Ka-Shing, 97, and is chaired by his son, Victor Li. The group has been listed in Hong Kong since 1996 and added a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange last year. It is majority owned by CK Hutchison, in which the Li family is a minority shareholder. In Britain, CKI already has holdings in UK Power Networks, the electricity distribution network covering London, the southeast and east of England, as well as the gas distribution networks Northern Gas Networks and Wales and West Utilities gas networks, and the water company Northumbrian Water. CKI is also interested in acquiring Thames Water and has been pushing Ofwat to reopen a bidding process after the preferred bidder KKR walked away. CKI and National Grid declined to comment.
Bloomberg
03-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Omers-Igneo Group, Hong Kong's CKI Vie for UK Grain LNG Terminal
By , Priscila Azevedo Rocha, and Vinicy Chan Save CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. and a consortium that includes Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System are the final bidders for one of Europe's largest liquefied natural gas terminals being sold by National Grid Plc, according to people familiar with the matter. Hong Kong-based CKI and the Omers- Igneo Infrastructure Partners consortium are in the last round of bidding for the LNG terminal at the Isle of Grain in the UK, the people said. A deal could give the Grain LNG terminal an equity value of about £2 billion ($2.7 billion), the people said. A bidding group led by Centrica Plc has dropped out from the process, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The first North Sea oil is pumped ashore in Britain – archive, June 1975
19 June 1975 In an English garden party atmosphere, under marquees in the middle of an oil refinery, Mr Tony Benn yesterday conducted a ceremony of what he called national celebrations of the first North Sea oil. He had just turned a large green valve on the tanker, Theogennitor, moored with 14,000 tons of oil worth more than £500,000 at the BP refinery on the Isle of Grain, Kent. On such a flaming June morning it was unpatriotic to dwell on the disclosure that delays at the well had caused the tanker to come in less than half full with £750,000 worth of oil space empty – so as not to delay the ceremony – and that the oil was not actually due to flow until the evening for safety reasons. It would also be rather brutal to harp on the fact that the occasion was an international one not a British one. The Japanese built, Liberian-registered, Greek-owned and skippered tanker was delivering Scottish oil to an English port for an Anglo-American consortium. Mr Benn said that Britain would be one of the top seven oil producers by 1980, and he believed that it was 'a day of national celebration for us. I feel sure that the British people would wish to offer their praise and thanks to the pioneers who faced the problem of extracting this oil from this hard environment and brought it to us.' There was 'no one living in any part of the United Kingdom who does not feel conscious of the historic nature of the achievements we are jointly celebrating.' Mr Benn also had a 'peculiar sense of security and satisfaction that comes from knowing that the UK has at its disposal the first trickle of oil supplies in which so much of our future is locked up.' Like the first piece of rock from the moon, the first drops of oil, changed dream into reality, brought home the facts in a personal way, and would stimulate a reassessment of Britain's prospects. Mr Benn said 'This really is in its own way exactly as significant as the first run of Stephenson's Rocket or whatever other industrial event you may choose. It is a turning point.' It would not save Britain's problems, but it provided a very great opportunity. He congratulated the courage of those who found and extracted the oil – a consortium of Hamilton Brothers of Colorado, Texaco, Associated Newspapers, and Kleinwort Benson. Mr Benn said that the nation 'will expect us to make the biggest possible British contribution to the development of our own oil resources. The government expects North Sea oil operators to buy British wherever possible. We must ourselves raise the British share of equipment and supplies to well above its present level of under 50 per cent' The government was also responsible for making certain that the oil resources were used widely for the benefit of Britain as a whole and to see that the British people received a full and fair return from its development. Mr Benn, surrounded by oil industry executives, said at his press conference: 'We have Concorde ready for anybody who worries about how we are going to use the oil.' Equally light-heartedly when asked whether Britain would apply to join the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, he said: 'It's just a wee bit early, but I appreciate the thought.' The BP oil platform Graythorp II – which is twice the height of Big Ben – was put into position in the Forties field early yesterday.
