Economy

Oil and Gas

Sullom Voe Terminal

In terms of oil, the terminal reached its peak in 1984 with a total receipt of 439,434,656 barrels (58,328,785 tonnes). Although throughput has declined in recent years, the terminal remains strategically important for the UK energy sector, and has potential to be developed for renewable energy and decarbonisation opportunities.

In 2022 the terminal had a total receipt of 41,010,300 barrels (3,678,957 tonnes) of oil.

While the tonnage of port traffic has decreased significantly since its peak, the terminal still handles millions of tonnes of cargo every year.  In 2022, it ranked 19th on a list of UK ports for total tonnage and 8th for Crude Oil shipments.  In a Scottish ports context, Sullom Voe was 4th for total tonnage and 3rd for oil and gas traffic.

Shetland Gas Plant

TotalEnergies’ West of Shetland gas development encompasses the Laggan, Tormore, Edradour and Glenlivet offshore fields, and the onshore Shetland Gas Plant. 

The development involved the drilling of subsea wells in deep waters and the installation of the longest subsea pipeline network ever seen on the UK continental shelf. 

This new plant processed the first gas from the west of Shetland in 2016. In 2022 its delivered production was 29 kBOEpb (thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day).