Phoenix Natural Gas

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Phoenix Natural Gas Limited is a Northern Ireland utility company which supplies natural gas to Greater Belfast and surrounding areas. Gas is supplied to Northern Ireland via the Scotland-Northern Ireland Pipeline (SNIP).

[edit] History

Phoenix Natural Gas (PNG) was established as a subsidiary of British Gas plc to exploit the licence to deliver natural gas to Belfast, awarded in 1996. British Gas had acquired Ballylumford power station at Larne in 1992, a condition of the sale was that the plant be converted from heavy fuel oil to gas-fired. This provided a "base demand" in addition to demand from commercial, residential and industrial customers.

Premier Transco Limited was formed to develop the SNIP, a 135 km pipe (40.4 km under sea) with a diameter of 0.61 m. Construction lasted three years (1994-1996) and was completed to time and on budget. Ballylumford converted to natural gas in 1996 and the first connections to Phoenix customers occurred in 1997.

In 1997 British Gas sold a 24.5% share to Keyspan Energy. As BG Group plc the company sold a further 24.5% share to East Surrey Investments in 2001. In 2003 East Surrey Investments bought BG's 51% share and Keyspan's 24.5% share to take full control of Phoenix Natural Gas.

In October 2005, PNG was purchased by Kellen Acquisitions Limited, a company formed by private equity managers Terra Firma.