East Knapton

For other places with the same name, see Knapton.

East Knapton
240px East Knapton
East Knapton  East Knapton shown within North Yorkshire
OS grid reference	SE882759
District	Ryedale
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MALTON
Postcode district	YO13 9
Dialling code	01944
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
EU Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament	Ryedale
List of places UK England Yorkshire

East Knapton is a village in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England.

Geography

It is just north of the A64 near the junction with the B1258. The York to Scarborough railway line is just north of the village and runs close to the power station. From 1845 until 1930, there was a railway station. The village is in the Rillington ward of Ryedale District Council which has a combined population of 1,734. On the other side of the A64 is Knapton Wood.

History

The village lies in the parish of West Heslerton which has the All Saints church. This is part of the Rillington group of churches.

Knapton Generating Station

This power station was opened in 1995 by Amy Glover, 8 years old. It has a 42 MWe General Electric LM6000 open cycle gas turbine. In August 2006, Scottish Power sold the power station to the RGS Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of UK Energy Systems Ltd (a holding company owned by US Energy Systems of Avon, Connecticut) for £15.5 million. The plant uses about 12,000 BTU per kWh of electricity, which is inefficient to more modern CCGT plants which use about 6,500 BTU per kWh of electricity.

Natural gas was discovered in Ryedale in 1970. The gas for the power station does not come from the National Transmission System but local gas fields found in Permian limestone and carboniferous sandstone at 5,000-foot depth.

Ryedale gas fields

Gas is located in North Yorkshire as part of the Southern North Sea Gas Basin. The gas fields and power station were bought by UK Energy Systems Ltd for $70 million from Viking UK Gas Ltd (owned by Viking Petroleum of Houston) who owned the fields since December 2003 and this company is still based in East Knapton as part of the acquisition. The fields were previously (since 1999) owned 60% by Tullow Oil (who sold their stake for $8.3 million in October 2003) and 40% by Edinburgh Oil & Gas plc (who sold their stake for £3.2 million).

At the start of the so-called North Yorkshire Power Project in the early 1990s, the gas fields were licensed by KeltPower who persuaded Scottish Power to build the power station as due to the gas being very local, no expensive compressors for gas pipelines would be needed. Scottish Power bought gas from the fields at a price in the power station contract that was much lower (almost half) than that which the price of gas subsequently became. Gas from each gas field is pumped to the power station at East Knapton via a six-inch pipe.

Kirby Misperton

This is at Kirby Misperton near the Flamingo Land Resort. The gas field was discovered in January 1985 and production started in March 1995.

Malton

It was discovered in January 1985 with production starting in September 1995.

Marishes

This is near High Marishes and Low Marishes near the River Derwent, just north of East Knapton. This field was discovered in November 1988. Production started in April 1995.

Pickering

This field was discovered in January 1992 with production starting in November 2001. Other gas fields around Pickering were initially developed by Home Oil of Calgary, Canada in the 1970s.

External links

• US Energy Systems