Phoenix Natural Gas
Phoenix Natural Gas, a new energy industry for Northern Ireland, in twelve short years has achieved local, national and international partnerships delivering an investment of over £510m into the local economy.
Coupled with this there are now some 3,000 working, directly or indirectly, in the local industry.
In the past decade Phoenix has built a brand-new downstream natural gas infrastructure in the Greater Belfast, Lisburn and Larne area. A network now reaching over 265,000 properties and still growing.
Natural gas enters Northern Ireland beside Ballylumford Power Station and is transported by high-pressure pipelines to the edge of the Phoenix license area. The Phoenix network has grown to over 2,900km of pipeline.
The natural gas industry is available to all market sectors and has displaced almost all of the heavy fuel oil usage in the industrial sector and captured over 60%of the gas oil market. Continual growth to the Phoenix network has resulted in the conversion of 50% of industrial and commercial businesses, over 50% of Housing Executive homes, 90% of all new build properties and one in four private homes in the last twelve years. There are over 120,000 customers using natural gas in the Phoenix licence area.
Natural gas has brought many benefits to Northern Ireland, particularly the environmental impact: natural gas produces 25% less carbon dioxide than oil and virtually no sulphur dioxide. This has not only improved the local air quality, as reported by local councils, but has also helped the Government to meet its climate change targets. It is estimated that homes and businesses that have converted to natural gas have prevented 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over the last ten years, and this has reduced the carbon dioxide levels in Northern Ireland by 4%.