Pete Bevington

25 January, 2008

BERTHING was suspended at Europe’s largest export terminal yesterday (Thursday) as westerly gales continued to batter the Shetland Isles, forcing ferry services out of action.

Sullom Voe oil terminal suspended berthing at 4am yesterday morning and does not expect to return to normal service until Saturday.

No ships were due in yesterday, though BP’s shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch had to stop unloading crude from the Schiehallion field west of Shetland due to the strength of the wind, which gusted up to 70 knots on Wednesday night.

The Bahamas registered oil tanker Hildegaard is the only vessel due in today and is likely to have to wait offshore until tomorrow, when winds are due to calm, before she can berth at the terminal.

Two other tankers, the Isle of Man registered British Eagle, and the Panama registered BM Bonanza, are due in tomorrow. They may have to wait until the end of the day before they can berth.

Meanwhile ferry operators NorthLink cancelled their northbound and southbound sailings between Aberdeen and Lerwick last night, as predicted. The afternoon and evening sailings across the Pentland Firth were also stopped due to high winds.

Scatsta airport, which handles most oil flights in and out of Shetland, had to keep helicopters grounded due to lightning between the airport and the North Sea oil rigs. Oil workers are staying the night on the islands waiting for the weather to improve.

However fixed wing flights in and out of Scatsta and Shetland’s main airport at Sumburgh remained unaffected by the strong winds.

Shetland Islands Council reported that all inter island ferry services were running as normal.