Gas plant ‘ops team’ will arrive in October
The Shetland Gas Plant will next month see the arrival of an operations team which will run the gas plant once it is ready to go.
The “ops team” comprises a mixture of personnel with different skills to suit the needs of an operational gas plant such as process engineers and operators. There will be around 80 in the team.
They will start moving to Shetland at the end of October to begin getting ready for the first gas next year. Most of them will work on a rotational basis and live in the Moorfield Hotel in Brae. They will man the gas plant, once operational, for the foreseeable future.
The gas plant is 75 per cent complete and the construction workforce is at its peak at around 1,400. This will start to reduce early next year.
Once operational the gas plant, which will import, process and export gas from the Laggan-Tormore fields, is expected to produce 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. This would today represent five per cent of the UK’s gas production.
Ali Inkster
Will Shetland college be offering a process engineering course to train youngsters to get jobs at the gas plant and SVT or even offshore? Or will it be lack of business as usual.
David Spence
Good point there Ali………It would be a great opportunity for the College (hopefully via the co orperation of the oil industry) to get more involved in promoting employment as well as training people for specific jobs related to the oil industry either for SVT or far afield.
Michael hobbin
Ali i very much doubt that shetland college would be able to offer the same course as what is offered by opito in aberdeen as it is 21 months at college which includes doing an NC and a HNC and also a lot of practical assessments which is delivered by ASET as well as 2 years on the job training, and i can assure you there are plenty of shetlanders going through the scheme and being trained as process operators
Ali Inkster
As I’m said afore Michael da college up here only seems interested in courses ta mac things fae bits o oo an macaroni, yet schlumberger took on nine grads fae da western isles in wan year. Whit wye are we no offering wir youngsters da sem opportunities to gain qualifications dat wid earn dem a decent wage. After all da arts need ta be subsidized which tells me dat dirs no enough money in it ta justify da money spent on it. If dem dat runs da college had ony wit dey wid o been set up ta offer engineering courses fae day wan. Now dir alwis gaen ta be playin catch up, which is at least better as no being in da game avaa
George Smith
You are quite right Ali in that this is an area of training that young Shetlanders are interested in and which will provide excellent employment prospects.
Perhaps though you are not aware that the facilities and expertise for this type of training lies at NAFC Marine Centre, not at Shetland College. This goes back to when Shetland College moved from Gressy Loan to Gremista.
I should perhaps also inform you that when Petrofac first announced they would be taking on apprentices, there were extensive discussions with them to locate the college training element in Shetland but they decided to go with what they knew – opito in Aberdeen.
George Smith
Sorry , I meant Total not Petrofac!
Heidi Harrison
Glad to hear that”ops team” will arrive soon. I’m waiting to hear more from you.