Centrica in BG tie-up to get Caribbean gas

Centrica is to team up with its old sister firm BG Group to develop a gas field in the Caribbean and secure future energy supplies for the UK.

Centrica, which trades in the UK as British Gas, is to pay £87 million to take a 45% stake in the field off the coast of Trinidad.

The field is currently operated and 30%-owned by BG Group, the London-listed gas producer, which used to be the international exploration arm of the old privatised British Gas before it was broken up a decade ago.

The move shows Centrica's need to find more gas to supply its 10 million household customers in the UK — and underlines the irony of the decision to demerge BG with its rich array of gas reserves.

Centrica says the acquisition of the Trinidad stake from a Canadian firm is so strategically important that the field could be the equivalent of around half of Centrica's total reserves in Morecambe Bay and the North Sea.

The output would be turned into shippable liquefied natural gas at BG's local LNG plant. It could then be transported across the Atlantic for its British Gas customers.

Broker Citigroup says that today's deal is a bargain at a fraction of the pro-rata cost of other recent Centrica deals such as its £2.3 billion investment to secure a 20% stake in British Energy.