News / Finally: first gas from Laggan-Tormore
FRENCH oil company Total is at last celebrating receiving the first gas from its flagship West of Shetland development following lengthy delays in construction.
The company announced on Monday morning that the Laggan-Tormore gas field was on stream with gas being pumped to the Shetland Gas Plant.
Eighteen months behind schedule and well over budget, the £3.3 billion project is of huge strategic importance to the UK’s energy security.
In a press release on Monday morning, Total confirmed production had started. The Laggan and Tormore fields, located in 600 metres of water in the West of Shetland area, are expected to produce 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
The company said Laggan-Tormore was a “key component of our production growth in 2016 and beyond”.
Its exploration and production president Arnaud Breuillac said the “innovative subsea-to-shore development” was the first of its kind in the UK and has no offshore surface infrastructure.
“By opening up this new production hub in the deep offshore waters of the West of Shetland, Total is also boosting the United Kingdom’s production capacity and also Europe’s energy security,” he said.
Total has a 60 per cent stake in the development along with DONG (20 per cent) and SSE (20 per cent).
Local councillor and close observer of the oil and gas industry, Alastair Cooper, said the gas terminal would bring jobs and income into the community for the next 50 years.
“I am absolutely delighted the gas is coming ashore,” he said. “We know that there is a lot of gas in the Atlantic frontier and I believe it bodes well for the future.
“It is here, and we know we have the infrastructure in place to attract further development wanting to utilise the pipeline.”
Total has maintained its commitment towards the project despite a major and prolonged slump in oil and gas prices.
“This is very significant for the UK economy,” Cooper said. “The UK needs its own gas if we don’t want to depend on the Eastern Bloc countries.
“I think there will be more and more pressure for the UK government to secure further gas from the Atlantic Frontier.”
Shetland MSP Tavish Scott said: “This is an important first for Total, Shetland and the wider UK economy.
“There is nothing but doom and gloom from some about the future of oil and gas. Yet the prospects for West of Shetland developments look positive.
“Sixty five thousand jobs have gone in recent months from the industry. Shetland is not immune as BP make changes to their staff numbers at Sullom Voe.
“But I believe that oil and gas has a significant role to play in the Shetland, Scottish and UK economies for years to come. Total’s investment and their determination to bring this project forward is therefore a sign of much needed confidence at a particularly tough time for everyone who works in oil and gas.”
The construction project has had something of a chequered history. Last year Petrofac, the project’s chief contractor, accepted responsibility for the lengthy delays to the project having initially sought to blame industrial unrest.
Petrofac lost hundreds of millions on a development initially due to be complete in the summer of 2014, with trade unions saying it had “grossly underestimated” the challenges that come with construction work in the Shetland climate.
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