11 September, 2008

SHETLAND Islands Council is to invest £80,000 to get access to exclusive oil industry data how companies intend to develop the huge gas reserves to the west of Shetland.

Oil majors TOTAL, who operate the Laggan and Tormore fields, and Chevron, who own Rosebank and Lochnagar, are jointly developing gas export strategies and are seeking third party investment.

The West of Shetland Task Force, a joint government/ industry body, is examining three options for brining the reserves ashore, one of which would be to build a gas processing hub (GPH) at Sullom Voe Terminal.

The other two options are to build a GPH in shallow water in the vicinity of the BP operated Clair oil field, also west of Shetland, or to build a deep draft semi submersible GPH off the Laggan and Tormore fields.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the SIC agreed to spend £50,000 as an entry fee to a “confidentially agreement”, which would give some council officials access to engineering studies and evaluation of the three options, and a further £30,000 to employ a consultancy firm to advise them on what the data actually means.

The council sees the long term future of its income from the port at Sullom Voe being dependent on attracting gas from the north Atlantic to the islands’ terminal.