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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.
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 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]
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 inches (560 mm) 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. [5] By 2008, the terminal had handled almost 8 billion barrels (abt 1.1 billion metric tons) of oil. Gas is imported through the West of Shetland pipeline. [4] Some of the gas is used as fuel in the ENGIE operated Sullom Voe power station. The remainder is enriched with LPGs and exported to the Magnus platform for enhanced oil recovery. Due to its secluded position, the site has its own fire brigade. [4]
On 3 May 2018 it was reported that both the Brent and Ninian pipelines had to be shut down - halting production from the connecting fields in the East of Shetland basin. The pipelines were shut down due to a "minor fault" being found during a routine inspection. The minor fault was reportedly a small oily-water leak in a pipeline. Late on 6 May, EnQuest announced repair work had been completed and both the Brent and Ninian pipelines were reopened. [6]
On 25 November 2018 the Sullom Voe Terminal reached a milestone 40th anniversary since first oil.
The throughput of the terminal over the period 1981 to 1990 (in 1000 barrels per day) was: [7]
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The total throughput of the terminal up to the end of 1997 was 821,773,000 tonnes. [8] The throughput over the period 1998 to 2021 (in 1,000 tonnes) was: [8]
| Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
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The gas turbine power station provides electricity for around 43% of the Shetland Islands (since the early 1990s) and the other half comes from the (fuel oil-powered) Lerwick Power Station situated at Gremista. Shetland requires about 50 MWe in the winter. From May 2004 to May 2014 it was operated by the Finnish company Fortum; previous to that it was operated by BP. Since May 2014 it has been operated by Cofely Limited, a GDF SUEZ company. The 100 MWe plant has four 25 MW General Electric Frame 5 gas turbines and is part of a CHP system being built in the late 1970s. The actual power output from the plant is around 80 MWe as each turbine runs at about 18 MW. When the oil terminal was at the height of its production, 70 MWe would be used from five gas turbines by the plant, but less is needed now. It employs around twenty people. [3]
Sullom Voe is adjacent to the TotalEnergies operated gas facility Shetland Gas Plant, completed in 2014.
Sullom Voe is an inlet of the North Sea between the parishes of Delting and Northmavine in Shetland, Scotland. It is a location of the Sullom Voe oil terminal and Shetland Gas Plant. The word Voe is from the Old Norse vagr and denotes a small bay or narrow creek. The head of the voe makes up the eastern side of Mavis Grind.
The Brent field was an oil and gas field located in the East Shetland Basin of the North Sea, 186 kilometres (116 mi) north-east of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, at a water depth of 140 metres (460 ft). The field operated by Shell UK Limited was discovered in 1971 and was once one of the most productive parts of the UK's offshore assets but has reached the stage where production is no longer economically viable. Decommissioning of the Brent field is complete with the exception of Brent C, which is producing from another field. The discovery well 211/26-1 was drilled in 1971 by the semi-submersible drilling rig "Staflo". This was a major surprise at the time as the nearest land in Scotland and Norway is composed of granite and other non reservoir metamorphic rocks.
The FLAGS pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in the UK sector of the North Sea which, together with its associated pipelines, is used to transport gas and associated liquids from oil and gas fields in the northern North Sea to the St. Fergus gas terminal.
The Dunlin oilfield is situated 195 km northeast of Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland, in block number 211/23a and 211/24a. It was originally operated by Shell but was sold in 2008 and is now operated by Fairfield Energy and partners MCX.
The Cormorant oilfield is located 161 kilometres (100 mi) north east of Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland. It was discovered in September 1972 at a depth of 150 metres (490 ft). The oil reservoir is located at a depth of 2,895 metres (9,498 ft). Production started in December 1979 from the Cormorant Alpha platform and operates from two platforms and an underwater manifold centre.
The Brent System pipeline transports oil from the North Sea oilfields via Cormorant Alpha to the Sullom Voe Terminal in Shetland, Scotland. Since 3 August 2009, it is operated by Abu Dhabi National Energy Company replacing the previous operator Royal Dutch Shell. The Brent system is jointly owned by 21 companies.
Platform Name - Tern Alpha.
The Ninian Central Platform is an oil platform in the North Sea. When constructed in Loch Kishorn, Scotland in 1978 the 600,000 tonne platform was the world's largest man-made movable object before being towed to its current position and sunk to the sea floor.
The Schiehallion oilfield is a deepwater offshore oilfield approximately 175 kilometres (110 mi) west of the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Schiehallion and adjacent Loyal field were jointly developed by BP on behalf of the Schiehallion field partners; BP, Shell, Amerada Hess, Murphy Oil, Statoil and OMV, and the Loyal field partners; BP and Shell.
Foinaven oilfield is a deep-water oil development approximately 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the Shetland Islands. Together with Schiehallion, Loyal, Solan, Clair and Lancaster fields it forms the area generally termed as the West of Shetland.
The Forties pipeline system (FPS) is a major pipeline transport network in the North Sea. It is owned and operated by Ineos and carries 30% of the UK's oil, or about 550 thousand barrels per day of oil per day, to shore. It carries liquids production from 85 fields in the North Sea and several Norwegian fields on behalf of around 40 companies. The system has a capacity of 575,000 barrels of oil a day.
The Ninian Pipeline is a 175 kilometres (109 mi) long crude oil pipeline, which runs from the Ninian Central platform in the northern North Sea to the Sullom Voe Terminal in Shetland Islands of Scotland.
The West of Shetland Pipeline (WOSP) is a pipeline system which transports natural gas from three offshore fields in the West of Shetland area to Sullom Voe Terminal in the Shetland Isles of Scotland.
The Magnus oilfield is a large oilfield in the United Kingdom's zone of North Sea. It is located 160 kilometres (99 mi) north-east of the Shetland Islands. The field is located mainly in Block 211/12a. Resources are estimated to total 1.54 billion barrels of oil, of which 869 million barrels are recoverable reserves.
The Thistle oil field is a large oil field in the northern sector of the North Sea. The oil field, discovered in September 1972 by Signal Oil and Gas Company, is produced over the Thistle Alpha platform, located 125 nautical miles northeast of Sumburgh, Shetland Islands and 275 nautical miles Northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland.
The main power supply for Shetland is provided by Lerwick Power Station, located in Gremista, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of Lerwick town centre. This is the principal source of electrical energy for Shetland, however currently about 20 MWe is provided by the Sullom Voe Terminal power station which comprises 4 x 23 MWe Gas Turbines, the future of which is uncertain. Opened on 27 May 1953 the station is diesel-fuelled and generates a total of 66 MW of power.
The Shetland Gas Plant is a natural-gas processing plant in the Shetland Islands, Scotland.
The Murchison oil field is located in the northern North Sea in the East Shetland Basin on the UK Continental Shelf. The field is situated 150 km north-east of Shetland and straddles the UK/Norwegian median line. It lies in UK Block 211/19 and extends into Norwegian Block 33/9. The field is named after the Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871). Recoverable reserves were estimated to be 340 million barrels of oil out of a total oil-in-place of 790 million barrels. The field was developed through a large steel jacket platform standing in 156 m of water. The peak production rate was 150,383 barrels of oil per day in December 1982. Oil production was supported by gas and water injection. Production ceased in 2014 and the platform was removed in 2017.
Alwyn North is a major oil and gas field in the United Kingdom sector of the northern North Sea, 160 km east of the Shetland Islands. The field was developed through two bridge-linked offshore platforms and a number of subsea satellite wellheads. Alwyn North has been producing oil and gas since 1987 and is still (2023) in operation.
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