Sullom Voe is an inlet of the

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

between the parishes of

Delting Delting is a civil parish and community council area on Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. It includes the Sullom Voe oil terminal and its main settlements are Brae, Mossbank and Voe. The parish, as described in 1882–1884, included the islands ...

and Northmavine in Shetland,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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 bay or narrow creek. The head of the voe makes up the eastern side of

Mavis Grind Mavis Grind ( non, Mæfeiðs grind or ', meaning "gate of the narrow isthmus") is a narrow isthmus joining the Northmavine peninsula to the rest of the island of Shetland Mainland in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is said to be the only plac ...

. The Voe, the longest in Shetland, and partially sheltered by the island of Yell was used as a military

airfield An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

both by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) ( no, Luftforsvaret, , The Air Defence) is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximatel ...

as a location for flying boats. With the coming of the oil terminal, the remains of the airfield were upgraded and modernised to create Scatsta Airport which was primarily used to service the terminal. The first crude oil was discovered in the North Sea in 1969, and soon thereafter construction began on the oil terminal at Sullom Voe, north east of the village of Brae, which became operational in 1975 and was completed in 1982, becoming the largest in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Oil flows via pipeline from the Brent 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 ...

oil fields to be loaded onto tankers at Sullom Voe. It has recently begun to serve North Atlantic oil fields as well. When Shetland was identified as a location to provide pipeline terminal and support facilities for off-shore oil installations in the northern

, corporations involved had expected to each build their own terminal facilities. However, wishing to minimise 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 ...

(SIC), with power granted to it by the UK Parliament in the Zetland County Council Act 1974,Zetland County Council Act 1974.
/ref> were able to contain all pipeline terminal facilities at the Sullom Voe site, now operated by

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 ...

on behalf of a consortium of companies operating in the North Sea and North

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Footnotes

{{Shetland Fjards of Scotland Ports and harbours of Scotland Special Areas of Conservation in Scotland North Sea Voes of Shetland Northmavine