FEATURE: FLOTTA
he UK’s second largest oil terminal serving the North Sea is on Flotta, a small Orkney island with a population of around 60 people. Oil is piped from several North Sea fields to Flotta where it is treated, stored and then loaded onto tankers for export. For over 35 years the landmark flare, burning off excess gas at the top of the 68 metre stack at Flotta oil terminal, has been visible for miles around south Orkney and across the Pentland Firth.
Flotta, the ‘flat isle’, is one of the circle of islands surrounding the 130 sq km deep, water sheltered anchorage of Scapa Flow. The waters have provided safe moorings to sea-going ships for centuries. Tankers heading to Flotta to load oil or gas cargoes are the latest in a long line of vessels which have moored in Scapa Flow.
Straddling the North Sea and the Atlantic, Scapa Flow played a notable role in British naval history. In 1914, Scapa Flow was the anchorage for the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet in its battles with Germany’s High Seas Fleet. At the end of the First World War, 74 German warships, stripped of their ammunition and breech blocks, were interned in Scapa Flow while the allies discussed what to do with them. On 21st June 1919 the German skeleton crews scuttled the ships to prevent them being ceded to the British navy. Within five hours 52 ships, including the flagship 28,000 tonne Hindenberg, sank to the bottom of Scapa Flow; the other 22 were damaged or beached or both. Most of the sunken ships have been salvaged, but those that remain make the deep clear waters of Scapa Flow a magnet for wreck divers.
Flotta guards the south east entrance to Scapa Flow and, in its strategic location, turned the 2000 acre island from an isolated farming community into a fortified military base, guarding the vital anchorage of Scapa Flow. In wartime, the population soared as military personnel poured into the Orkney Islands which were turned into a fortress, with armaments, airfields, radar stations, piers, fuel stores and a host of ancillary
24 Oil&GasCONNECT
FLOTTA: THE FLAT ISLAND T
Words: Penny Hitchin
facilities installed to accommodate the tens of thousands of people deployed there. Flotta itself was an important naval base.
North Sea oil development
Once the Second World War was over, the military departed, leaving behind a heritage of wartime buildings, many of which, although overgrown and decaying, can be seen today. Flotta’s population reverted to the traditional island life of fishing and farming until a few decades later, the discovery and development of North Sea oil fields meant that a new off comer came calling.
In 1974, the 400 acre terminal includes fi ve huge half-million barrel storage tanks, process area, deballast area, stores and offi ces. The Flotta terminal development – 230km pipeline; storage tanks; jetties and single point moorings - cost $650m.
In 1972, the Occidental consortium (Oxy) struck oil around 135 miles south east of Orkney and looked for a route to deliver oil from the Piper and Claymore fields. Oxy decided to bring the crude ashore by pipeline and chose Scapa Flow to provide a safe deep-water anchorage for the tankers that would export the oil and gas processed at the terminal. The Flotta islanders agreed to the development, hoping that it would improve infrastructure and bring jobs and new permanent residents.
The island population soared once again as work started in 1974 to build storage and
processing facilities. Over 1000 construction workers were accommodated in a temporary camp and Gibraltar pier was kept busy as ships arrived with deliveries of equipment and supplies. The 400 acre terminal includes five huge half-million barrel storage tanks, process area, deballast area, stores and offices. The Flotta terminal development – 230km pipeline; storage tanks; jetties and single point moorings - cost $650m. The cost of the Piper and Claymore rigs which supplied Flotta was $12,657. To put this in perspective, it was possible to buy three gallons of petrol and still get change out of a pound in 1974!
The first product was delivered to the brand new Flotta terminal on Christmas Day 1976 from Piper. Claymore came on stream in November 1977 and in 1980 construction was completed. The oil and gas were separated and processed for loading onto tankers via a new tanker loading jetty. Today, crude oil is imported from several offshore installations through a 30 inch subsea pipeline from fields including Claymore, Piper B, Tartan, Saltire and Galley and MacCulloch field. Flotta’s production peak of over 13m tonnes was reached in 1995. By 2012, the number of tankers loading at the terminal had fallen from several each week to 25 crude oil and 5 gas tankers each year.
Flotta oil terminal employs hundreds of people, most of them making a daily 30 minute trip from Orkney mainland on the fast catamaran Flotta Lass. Few live on the island, although island infrastructure has improved substantially and it now has mains electricity and water and much improved ferry services but Flotta International Airport is still a pipedream.
Talisman Energy became the terminal’s major shareholder and operator in May 2000, taking over from Elf who had replaced Oxy. In summer 2012, Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec paid nearly one billion pound for a 49 per cent share in Talisman Energy (UK). This seems to be a vote of confidence in the North Sea – perhaps heralding a new chapter in the story of Flotta oil terminal.
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