New ship to house 500 Petrofac workers

The Kalmar barge was moved from Alexandra Wharf in central Lerwick round to Holmsgarth on Friday morning.Photo: Ian Leask

A new accommodation ship making its way to Lerwick this weekend to house gas plant workers is the 169-metre SNAV Toscana.

The vessel will provide accommodation for 500 workers from around 6th March, bringing the workforce on the Total gas plant project to 2,000.

She is due to leave Naples, where she is currently berthed, over the weekend.

The former ferry’s arrival in Lerwick will bring to four the number of accommodation vessels berthed at the port.
Chief executive of Lerwick Port Authority, Sandra Laurenson, said the vessel would be berthed at Holmsgarth 5 near the Bibby Stockholm and the Kalmar.

It comes after final 2014 results showed Petrofac made a cumulative loss of around £160 million on the delayed Laggan-Tormore project.

Petrofac spokeswoman, Sarah Fowler, said the company hoped to complete the project by the end of the third quarter of this calendar year.

“We’ve got three barges at the moment. Then we’ve got a liner in Scalloway and now this new liner, so it’s essentially three barges and two liners.

“With the new liner it will bring staff numbers up to over 2,000. We are around about 1,400 at the moment.”