The Sullom Voe Terminal is an oil and gas terminal at

Sullom Voe 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 ' and denotes a small ba ...

in the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It handles production from oilfields in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and

East Shetland Basin The East Shetland Basin is a major oil-producing area of the North Sea between Scotland and Norway. Oil produced in the UK area is landed at Sullom Voe Terminal in the Shetland Islands. Associated gas flows via the FLAGS, FLAGS pipeline to St Fe ...

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

, 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 The Shetland Islands Council ( sco, Shetland Islands Cooncil; gd, Comhairle Shealtainn) is the local authority for Shetland, Scotland. It was established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and is the successor to the former Lerwick Tow ...

, with power granted to it by the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

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. They were housed in temporary accommodation, including the former car ferry . 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 Scatsta Airport , was a commercial airport on the island of Mainland, Shetland in Scotland located north of Lerwick and southwest of Sullom Voe Terminal. It is owned by Shetland Island's Council and was operated by Serco on behalf of the ...

to the south re-opened in 1978 to support the building of the terminal. The terminal was officially opened on Saturday 9 May 1981 by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

. 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 Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

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.

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 EnQuest plc is an independent United Kingdom-based petroleum exploration and production company which operates mainly in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. EnQuest shares are included on the main list of the London Stock Exchange and the firm ...

. The terminal receives oil through the Brent (TAQA Bratani) and

Ninian Ninian is a Christian saint, first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland. For this reason he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedicatio ...

(EnQuest) pipeline systems. Oil from the

Schiehallion oilfield The Schiehallion oilfield is a deepwater offshore oilfield approximately 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 part ...

and

Foinaven oilfield Foinaven oilfield is deepwater oil development approximately 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. Field description Foin ...

has been received by the purpose-built ''Loch Rannoch''

shuttle tanker A shuttle tanker is a ship designed for oil transport from an off-shore oil field as an alternative to constructing oil pipelines. It is equipped with off-loading equipment compatible with the oil field in question. This normally consists of a tau ...

since August 1998. 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 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. 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 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. West of Shetland area The West of Shetland ...

. Some of the gas is used as fuel in the

ENGIE Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

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. 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. On 25 November 2018 the Sullom Voe Terminal reached a milestone 40th anniversary since first oil.

Throughput

The throughput of the terminal over the period 1981 to 1990 (in 1000 barrels per day) was: The total throughput of the terminal up to the end of 1997 was 821,773,000 tonnes. The throughput over the period 1998 to 2021 (in 1,000 tonnes) was:

Sullom Voe power station

The

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

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 The main power supply for Shetland is provided by Lerwick Power Station, located in Gremista, northwest of Lerwick town centre. This is the principal source of electrical energy for Shetland, however currently about 20 MWe is provided by the S ...

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 Fortum Oyj is a Finnish state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. In addition to Finland, it focuses on Germany and other countries in Central Europe, Great Britain, Russia and the Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, inc ...

; previous to that it was operated by BP. Since May 2014 it has been operated by Cofely Limited, a

GDF SUEZ Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

company. The 100 MWe plant has four 25 MW

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

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.

Shetland Gas Plant

Sullom Voe is directly neighboured by the

TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational integrated energy and List of oil exploration and production companies, petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven Big Oil, supermajor oil companies. Its businesses ...

operated gas facility Shetland Gas Plant, completed in 2014.

References

External links

Sullom Voe Terminal (BP website)

Sullom Voe Terminal (BP website, PDF file)

Shetlopedia

Sullom Voe Oil Terminal (Shetland Islands Council website)

Explosion at the terminal in May 1981

The Queen opens the terminal in 1981 with an audio clip of her speech

Esso Bernicia incident in December 1978
{{Coord, 60, 28, N, 1, 16.5, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title BP buildings and structures North Sea energy Transport in Shetland Port cities and towns of the North Sea Oil terminals Natural gas terminals Oil and gas industry in Shetland Natural gas infrastructure in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Shetland Buildings and structures completed in 1981 Explosions in Scotland Mainland, Shetland 1981 establishments in Scotland