Thirty jobs to go at Shetland oil terminal

Oil company EnQuest is to cut about 30 jobs at the Sullom Voe Terminal in Shetland.

EnQuest has started to consult with staff about voluntary redundancies in a bid to create a "sustainable" future for the site.

The company has been reducing the size of its processing facilities at the terminal in recent years as oil throughput continues to fall from the fields east and west of Shetland.

EnQuest took over the running of the terminal from previous operator BP in December 2017.

At its peak, in the 1980s, the terminal was processing more than 1.5m barrels of oil a day.

That figure is now less than 100,000.

The oil company is also looking at new energy ventures at the terminal, such as carbon capture and storage.

A spokesperson said: "EnQuest confirms that it has begun a consultation process at the Sullom Voe Terminal (SVT), with the aim of achieving the required workforce reduction through a voluntary process.

"This process is aligned with the ongoing transformation of SVT, which has been designed to secure a long-term and sustainable future for the terminal, enabling continued operations until at least 2036."

Councillor Andrea Manson said she was not surprised there was a risk of job losses, claiming there had been "fairly radical cost-cutting" at the site.

"It's quite scary what could happen," she said.