Miantenance at South Morecambe field

Centrica PLC Maintenance at Centrica's Morecambe field Centrica plc confirms that its subsidiary, Hydrocarbon Resources Limited (HRL) has today taken its South Morecambe field out of production for a period of extended maintenance. Following the publication of the Interim Report by Centrica Storage Limited on 24 April regarding the incident involving a cooler unit at the Rough platform in February, HRL has decided to bring forward and extend its normal summer maintenance period at South Morecambe. The field uses coolers of a similar design and following an initial inspection, with employee safety a priority, HRL intends to carry out remedial works on those units in order to remove this element of risk. This will enhance the integrity of the asset before the key winter demand period. It is expected that operations will recommence at the beginning of September 2006 when the field will return to full production capacity. At an earnings level the financial impact on Centrica of the outage is expected to be immaterial after rescheduling production profiles for the balance of the year due to the combination of the upstream marginal tax rate and seasonally low wholesale gas prices. Centrica has secured from the market the gas required to meet British Gas customer demand during this period. The North Morecambe field is currently undergoing its regular annual maintenance which takes place in May and is expected to return to normal operations by the end of May. Enquiries: Centrica Investor Relations +44 (0) 1753 494900 ir@centrica.co.uk Centrica Media Relations +44 (0) 1753 494085 media@centrica.co.uk Notes to Editors: South Morecambe's peak daily production capability, of around 20 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas, forms less than 5% of the UK market's seasonal normal winter day demand of over 400mcm

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