Fulcrum wins significant distillery gas pipeline project

Fulcrum operations managers Grant Watson and Sammy Waters and Fulcrum regional manager Ronnie Close outside Dalmunach Distillery
Fulcrum operations managers Grant Watson and Sammy Waters and Fulcrum regional manager Ronnie Close outside Dalmunach Distillery

Independent utility infrastructure provider Fulcrum has secured a new project to deliver seasonal gas supplies to four major Scottish distilleries.

The company has been awarded the £3.95 million contract to install a 13-kilometre pipeline to link Scotland’s main gas network to the distilleries at Tamdhu, Dalmunach, Cardhu and Knockando, which are located in Speyside. The pipeline will deliver approximately 4,700 cubic metres of gas every hour.

Awarded by a partnership of three whisky companies that will share the cost of the pipeline, Chivas Brothers, Diageo and Ian MacLeod Distillers, the connection to the gas network will help reduce the distilleries’ carbon footprints by cutting their reliance on fuel oil and ending the need for its delivery by road tankers during the summer months. As a result of the limitations of the current local gas infrastructure, the new pipeline will enable the distilleries to receive a gas supply from 1st April until 30th September each year, when domestic usage is lower.



Scheduled to begin in August 2015, the project will be delivered by a dedicated team of Fulcrum project managers and engineers. Among the challenges the team will overcome is the transportation of gas across the river Spey.

A bespoke-engineered system has been designed by Fulcrum, which will carry the pipeline across the river at Carronbridge without impacting on the local environment and dramatic scenery.

The awarding of this project follows on from Fulcrum’s completion of a 16-mile pipeline connecting four other Speyside distilleries in 2014. Fulcrum’s largest contract to date, the £7.6m project brought gas to Cragganmore, The Glenlivet, Tormore and Tomintoul distilleries on behalf of Chivas Brothers, Diageo and Angus Dundee. As a result, the distilleries have been able to switch to a less carbon-intensive fuel source.

The delivery of the project and this latest contract have been supported by the work of a government initiated gas taskforce, which have come together to address the region and its industry’s power infrastructure requirements.



Martin Donnachie, chief executive of Fulcrum, said: “We are very proud to continue our relationship with Scotland’s historic whisky industry and support its drive to achieve long-term environmental efficiencies.

“The project will also further strengthen Scotland’s gas infrastructure by bringing new connections to important businesses that are major local employers and make a significant contribution to the economy.”


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