The Sullom Voe Terminal is an oil and gas terminal at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands of Scotland. It handles production from oilfields in the North Sea and East Shetland Basin and stores oil before it is transported by tanker.
Construction
When Shetland was identified as a location to provide pipeline terminal and support facilities for offshore oil installations in the northern North Sea, corporations involved had expected to each build their own terminal facilities. However, wishing to minimize the negative impacts of the industry, the Shetland Islands Council, with power granted to it by the UK Parliament in the 1974 Zetland County Council Act, was able to contain all pipeline terminal facilities at the Sullom Voe site.
Sullom Voe Terminal was built between 1975 and 1981. 6,000 people were employed during construction.[1] They were housed in temporary accommodation, including the former car ferry TEV Rangatira.[2]
The first oil was received at 18:40 on 25 November 1978 via the Brent pipeline. At 12:30 on 3 December 1978, the first oil from the Ninian pipeline was received. The Scatsta Airport to the south re-opened in 1978 to support the building of the terminal.[3]
The terminal was officially opened on Saturday 9 May 1981 by Queen Elizabeth II. A bomb was detonated at the power station on the terminal at 12.05pm on the day of the ceremony which was attributed to the IRA by Connor McCarthy. A boiler was damaged but no-one was injured. Despite the bombing the ceremony continued, concluding with the Queen dining aboard Rangatira that evening.[2]
Operation
Sullom Voe Terminal has been owned since its construction by the Ninian and Brent partners. On 1 December 2017 the plant transitioned from long term operator BP to EnQuest. The terminal receives oil through the Brent (TAQA Bratani) and Ninian (EnQuest) pipeline systems.[4] Oil from the Schiehallion oilfield and Foinaven oilfield has been received by the purpose-built Loch Rannoch shuttle tanker since August 1998.[3]
In the late 1990s at the height of North Sea Oil, the terminal handled over a quarter of UK petroleum production and around 500 people worked there. Around half are EnQuest workers. A new 22 in pipeline was laid from the Clair oilfield in 2003–2004, and first oil from the Clair field was received in February 2005. 7 billion barrels (abt 960 million tons) of oil through the SVT achieved in December 2001.
Shetland Gas Plant
Sullom Voe is adjacent to the TotalEnergies operated gas facility Shetland Gas Plant, completed in 2014.
See also
- Yell Sound
- The Shetland Experience, a documentary film about the construction of the terminal
- Flotta oil terminal
- Teesside oil terminal
- Shetland Gas Plant
External links
References
- Sullom Voe info Undiscovered Scotland, retrieved 28 February 2009^
- Marcus Castell. The Turbo Electric Vessel Rangatira of 1971 The New Zealand Maritime Record, 2003–2005, retrieved 29 May 2013^
- Aberdeen. Sullom Voe Terminal - Infrastructure Information