We are building a sustainable business with balanced power generation and leading gas and oil positions on the UK and Norwegian continental shelves.

Exploration and Production
Our exploration and production business, Centrica Energy Upstream (CEU), was launched in January 2010 following the acquisition of Venture Production and Suncor's Trinidad and Tobago business.
We are the third largest producer of gas on the UK continental shelf and had the most active exploration and appraisal drilling programme in 2010 with a great success rate. We are also growing our businesses in The Netherlands, Norway and internationally with nearly 900 people currently employed across our regions.

Power Generation
We are playing our part in helping the UK meet the Government's target of producing 15% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Renewables
We operate four onshore and offshore wind farms, including:

  • the 194MW Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm development, and
  • the 90MW Barrow offshore wind farm.
  • In October 2009 we announced that the 270MW Lincs offshore wind development project had received final investment approval and construction began in 2010. And, in January
  • 2010, we were awarded exclusive rights to develop up to 4.2GW in the Irish Sea zone in The Crown Estate's Round 3 offshore wind tendering process.

Gas fired power stations
We operate a fleet of seven CCGT power stations across the UK. The latest, completed in 2010, is at Langage in Devon. It is one of the most efficient generators of its type in the world and can output up to 885MW.

Nuclear power stations
In November 2009 we completed a deal with EDF to acquire a 20% equity interest in British Energy, the operator of eight existing nuclear power stations in the UK. This was in part funded by the sale of Centrica's 51% equity stake in the Belgian business SPE to EDF. This joint venture with EDF also provides us with the option to participate in EDF's UK New Nuclear Build (NNB) programme.

Biomass
As part of our commitment to securing stable sources of power while reducing carbon emissions, we are planning to introduce biomass into our generation portfolio. Biomass provides opportunities to generate energy with significantly lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels.