Letters / What’s in it for Shetland?
Taken to the cleaners? Shetland needs a new Strood a’ Claes.
Statkraft and fellow Norwegians Aker are building a new plant at Narvik, in Norway, to export ammonia by gas tanker (-33C) using wind turbine derived hydrogen. Similar could evolve at Sullom.
Can SVT/SGP accommodate that? Will Eala Water expansion be sufficient or will desalination of seawater be required. Can the old/decommissioned propane routes at -40c be upgraded/used or compatible with vessels using the present crude oil pipelines?
If not, it could provide a contrived excuse for offshore oil producers such as BP, the operator of the Clair field, to stop using SVT with a serious effect on Shetland’s finances.
However, there could be yet more opportunities to grasp.
BP has a partnership in Aker/BP for exploration/production in Norwegian/North Sea whose deeper pockets could provide finance to develop the large complex Clair Ridge fields (and more reasons to use the SVT/SGP).
The Clair and Laggan area participants in addition to having oil, has gas as does Rosebank (Equinor – Norwegian – and Ithaca) and Victory (Shell and Equinor) earmarked for the SGP, but could possibly be used as a source to obtain Blue Hydrogen as feedstock for ammonia whilst removing undesirables such as CO2, sulphur, mercury, light and heavy ends at Sullom.
In the past questions have been asked about the need for offshore wind turbines and floaters (i.e. East of Bressay) to produce electricity/hydrogen. This should continue to be the case with ample supplies of gas/energy available from the Clair and other fields.
Will locally developed wind turbines in Yell (some now associated with Statkraft) benefit the wider Shetland community. A similar question should be asked to justify further onshore turbines/hydrogen/electricity being promoted this week.
Production and storage tanks for ammonia would have to be built to allow export via gas tankers (check the size of those earmarked for the Narvik facility) – perhaps 30,000 m3 corresponding to say 25,000 tonne cargoes
Would LCO2 arrivals from Avonmouth be accommodated within the jetty space and facilities?
The SIC and their negotiators are reminded yet again that the original SVT agreement was for a crude oil stabilisation plant not a manufacturing plant as any ammonia development would become.
Therefore developments by Statkraft should neither be a cash cow for them or the national treasuries of Norway and the UK at the expense of Shetland.
Adequate compensation schemes and equity (board room participation?) should be to the forefront of the minds of Shetlanders and their representatives during negotiations to keep the grasping hands of Edinburgh and or Westminster away from it, as it did with hijacking the Shetland Charitable Trust by bending to the diktats of Holyrood to suit its own purposes.
Scottish governments of whatever hue would just love to get its hands on ammonia revenue from Shetland (ie tax and keep it all under their control) to fund their pet projects elsewhere.
In that respect – what powers have been delegated (and for how long) by the councillors via the SIC officials regarding all these matters. These “powers so delegated” can always be brought back (and should be before final signature) for the scrutiny of Shetlanders fair scunnered with the previous malign treatment by Holyrood politicians together with the less than benign oversight from UK authorities and quangos.
Shetland will have to look after itself. Is the SIC up to the job?
Surely if ammonia developments proceed apace, a substantial amount of construction/infrastructure will be required to be built, needing more accommodation, housing, roads etc, and not to forget the need for ferries, tunnels, freight and passengers to Britain.
What’s in it for Shetland? Keep control – ideally for the next five centuries, not as in the previous five. Faroe as an exemplar.
Shetlanders, SIC councillors and officials will recall the parable of the talents (Mathew 15-14), of the entrepreneurial servant who took calculated risks to the benefit of his master and community, whereas the third servant had his deposit taken from him (for not even trying). Which category is Shetland/the SIC in?
Does the SIC have the talent to look after the talents given to it.
Cecil Robertson
Inverness
