News / Sullom Voe plans will create hundreds of jobs
THE PARTNERS in Shetland’s Sullom Voe oil terminal are planning a massive investment in its long term future.
Terminal manager Arthur Spence told BBC Radio Shetland that hundreds of jobs will be created over the next five years as plant and pipework is renewed and a new gas processing facility is built.
The company will be considering building new accommodation or chartering a flotel to accommodate the construction workers.
Spence said the terminal was planning to squeeze a decade long programme of plant maintenance into just five years employing 200 people at the peak of the work in 2014.
He said they had yet to finalise their plans, but were thinking of ring fencing areas of the terminal while they were refurbished by dedicated teams.
Pipework will be inspected, insulation and lagging removed and scaffolding erected to clean, paint and replace pipes where necessary.
“This is really to make Sullom Voe fit for the next 25 years,” Spence said.
“It will be a three to five year programme. We won’t have 200 people arriving at the gate at once, but will ramp up by 2014.”
The planned gas plant will process gas from west of Shetland prior to it being piped out to the Magnus field in the North Sea for onward export to the UK mainland.
“This is a major £200 million project that will run for about five years with a view to have it up and running by about 2017,” Spence said.
“It’s going to bring in a number of additional contractors and people into Sullom Voe, so will develop a strategy for how we accommodate all that staff.”
Meanwhile BP is planning additional developments of the Clair Ridge oil field west of Eshaness. Spence said he hoped that Shetland would continue to handle the oil from the Schiehallion field in the north Atlantic once it had been redeveloped in 2016.
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