Sullom Voe Terminal, Scotland

The Sullom Voe Terminal (SVT) in Scotland, the UK, is one of the largest oil terminals in Europe. The terminal, located at the northern end of the largest of the Shetland Islands, is operated by UK-based petroleum exploration and production company EnQuest.

The terminal was developed with an investment of £1.2bn. Construction period ran between 1975 and 1981 and it was officially opened in May 1981 by the Queen Elizabeth II.

Sullom Voe receives crude oil and gas from offshore producing fields in the East Shetland Basin in the North Sea and Atlantic Margin and from other pipeline systems.

Subsequently, the hydrocarbons are stored, processed, and shipped via tankers to global refineries. The terminal is designed to enable continuous production even in bad weather.

Ownership

EnQuest operates the Sullom Voe oil complex on behalf of a consortium of companies.

In January 2017, EnQuest signed an agreement with BP, the previous operator of the terminal. As per the agreement, BP agreed to transfer the operatorship and 3% interest from BP Exploration Operating Company (BPEOC) in the terminal.

EnQuest also acquired an additional 9% interest in the terminal in December 2018. Following the completion, EnQuest owned 15.1% stake in SVT.

Sullom Voe Terminal Main Infrastructure

The main facilities of the Sullom Voe Terminal include an oil and gas processing, stabilisation, and separation plant; 16 floating roof crude oil storage tanks with around 520,000-barrel (bbl) total capacity; a sour gas sweetening facility, and gas export infrastructure.

Export facilities include four jetties with two operational; a crude loading system of meter banks and crude loading pumps; a Crude Oil Metering System (COMS); and gas export to the East of Shetland Pipeline System (EoSPS) via ultrasonic metering system.

The other facilities include four fixed roof ballast water tanks with oil skimmers; an onsite power station and a stream generation plant; a main flare, a standby flare and two ancillary surge flares; an onsite laboratory, administrative buildings, a medical centre, and an onsite fire station.

Import/Export and Processing Infrastructure

The import/export facilities of the Sullom Voe Terminal include pipeline reception facilities with pig receiver. It uses four tanks and jetties with Brent Blend and pumping and metering of crude export.

The processing facilities include a stabilisation train with sub trains and compression facilities. The capacity of the stabilisation train is 410,000 barrels of oil per day (bbls p/d).

Operations

The Sullom Voe Terminal, spread across 1,000 acres, receives oil and gas via 36-inch Brent and 36-inch Ninian pipelines. The hydrocarbons are mixed to form the Brent Blend.

From East of Shetland, hydrocarbons enter the terminal via pig reception facilities and then stabilised and stored in crude oil storage tanks.

Gas and oil are separated during the stabilisation process. The separated gas is used as fuel in the power station.

Brent Blend is transported to the storage tanks via pipes and allowed to settle, before exporting the oil via tankers.

Under the stabilisation process, temperature and pressure are used to remove lighter hydrocarbons from oil and /or gas so that the output could be stored safely for a long time.

The water is separated from the brent and drained off before export and the separated oil is exported to the market via storage tanks.

A new pipeline was constructed in 2016 to transport condensate from the Shetland Gas Plant. The terminal receives condensate from the plant through this new pipeline and exports it to the market.

The Clair Field, located West of Shetland, transports stabilised oil to the terminal via a 22-inch oil pipeline.

The terminal receives gas from Clair and other fields via the 20-inch West of Shetland Gas Pipeline System (WoSPS). It undergoes processing to remove hydrogen sulphide and some gas is used as fuel and the rest is exported to the Magnus Platform through the 20-inch EoSPS.

Key Contractors

Global E&C, an integrated EPC contractor, was selected by EnQuest in February 2024 to deliver components for the new stabilisation facility at the Sullom Voe Terminal. The stabilisation facility will include gas export and will commence operation in early 2025.

In May 2023, Sodexo received a £7.5m three-year extension contract for the terminal’s catering and Facility Management (FM) services. Sodexo has the option to extend the contract for a further two years.

The pipeline between the terminal and the Shetland Gas Plant was constructed by Murphy Pipelines.

Construction engineering company NIRAS has been delivering engineering support to the Shetland Islands Council for the maintenance of the contract since the 1970s.

The oil export jetties were constructed by Christiani & Nielsen in the 1970s and were designed by Peter Fraenkel & Partners. Currently, they are parts of NIRAS.