28 November, 2008

THE SULLOM Voe Terminal in Shetland has donated £30,000 to local charities nominated by staff to commemorate 30 years of operations this week.

During that time the terminal has processed more than 7.6 billion barrels of crude oil and over 14.5 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas for export.

First oil came ashore from the Brent pipeline system at 6.40pm on 25 November 1978.

In August 1998 Sullom Voe Terminal saw the first west of Shetland Oil come to the terminal via shuttle tanker, when the first cargo of oil was offloaded from the new west of Shetland Schiehallion field.

This was followed in March 2005 when first oil was received, via a newly laid pipeline, from the Clair field west of Shetland.

Looking to the future, site works started in July on Project "Aurora" to replace the existing gas processing plant with a simpler, smaller plant, which will be operational by August 2010.

Terminal manager Lindsay Boswell said: "Thirty years of operations is a great milestone and everyone involved should be very proud of this achievement.

"Clearly the oil industry has become an integral part of the life, culture and economy of Shetland during this time and I hope that the new investments at the terminal will allow us to continue to work together to make the most of business opportunities in the future."