The West of Shetland Pipeline (WOSP) is a pipeline system which transports

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

from three offshore fields in the West of Shetland area to

Sullom Voe Terminal 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. Constructio ...

in the

Shetland Isles 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 ...

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 ...

West of Shetland area

The West of Shetland area is a region in the northern

Atlantic Ocean 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 ...

, where there are currently three developed offshore fields;

Schiehallion Schiehallion (; gd, Sìth Chailleann, ) is a prominent cone-shaped mountain in the Breadalbane region of the Scottish Highlands, in the county of Perthshire. It rises to and is classed as a Munro. Schiehallion has a rich botanical life, int ...

Foinaven – , photo = Foinaven_from_Achriesgill.jpg , photo_caption = Foinaven seen from Achriesgill on Loch Inchard , elevation_m = 911 , elevation_ref = , prominence_m = 690 , prominence_ref = , parent_peak = Ben Klibreck , listing = Mari ...

and Clair. A number of further hydrocarbon discoveries have been made in the area, but these are not currently considered to be economic due to the high costs of development. The Laggan-Tormore and Rosebank-Lochnagar discoveries are in the process of being further appraised for development, but the WOSP is considered to be unable to carry the additional gas production from these fields.

Ownership

WOSP is owned collectively by the owners of the Schiehallion, Loyal, Foinaven and East Foinaven fields; each owner company holds divided capacity rights in accordance with its ownership interest. It is operated by BP.

Technical description

The system consists of a trunkline which begins near

and has length of . It has a maximum capacity of of gas per year. Natural gas from the Clair field is delivered into the pipeline at the Clair ''tee'' midway along the pipeline from Sullom Voe. Natural gas from WOSP is further transported by East of Shetland Pipeline (EOSP), NLGP and

FLAGS A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic desi ...

/SEGAL systems for the delivery into the UK

National Transmission System The United Kingdom's National Transmission System (NTS) is the network of gas pipelines that supply gas to about forty power stations and large industrial users from natural gas terminals situated on the coast, and to gas distribution companies th ...

St Fergus St Fergus is a village in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. St Fergus lies from the North Sea coast and north-west of Peterhead. The Parish of St Fergus includes the remains of Inverugie Castle and Ravenscraig Castle. The church in ...

in the northeast of

, and for the delivery of separated natural gas liquids into either the

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

operated SEGAL system or the onshore section of the BP-operated Forties pipeline system. The gas delivered from the pipeline is also part of the

Magnus oilfield The Magnus oilfield is a large oilfield in the United Kingdom's zone of North Sea. It is located north-east of the Shetland Islands. The field is located mainly in Block 211/12a. Resources are estimated to total of oil, of which are recoverabl ...

enhanced oil recovery scheme where gas and

natural gas liquids Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natur ...

are piped to the Magnus platform and injected into the reservoir to increase the recoverable reserves from the development.

References

{{Reflist BP buildings and structures Natural gas pipelines in the United Kingdom Pipelines under the North Sea Oil and gas industry in Shetland West of Shetland