Stephen Sanderson, chief executive of UK Oil & Gas PLC and its wholly owned subsidiary UK Energy Storage ("UKEn"), enjoyed an encouraging meeting yesterday in Parliament with the Minister of State for Energy and Climate, the Rt. Hon. Graham Stuart MP and the MP for South Dorset, Mr Richard Drax, who facilitated the event. The meeting covered all areas of UKEn's energy storage hub project at Portland Port in Dorset.

Discussions included the need for more strategic level energy storage, both natural gas and hydrogen, as a fundamental part of the solution to the post-Ukraine energy crisis, the energy transition and future UK green energy independence.

Delivery of Portland's strategic level underground salt cavern storage, the largest planned in the UK onshore, would, if delivered, double the UK's onshore storage capacity and would be built to handle both hydrogen and natural gas from inception.

Mr Sanderson said: 
"It was important to gain the support of the Minister for our project and to learn more about the Government's plans to provide a workable business model to attract investment into vital energy storage infrastructure."

"I look forward to taking these discussions further with the Minister, Mr Drax and their teams. I am most grateful to both for their time and enthusiasm for our project."