UK: Total inaugurates new gas project in the North Sea

French oil giant Total, on Monday, inaugurated its new gas project in the North Sea near the Scottish Shetland Islands, whose production is providing up to 8% of British gas consumption.

This project, called Laggan Tormore-includes four subsea wells 600 meters deep and connected to a new gas processing plant built on the Shetland Islands. Launched on February 7, production reached its ceiling from 90,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent.

"This infrastructure between the seabed and the land is the first of its kind in the country and will provide 8% of its daily gas needs, while basing the potential for future developments in the West Shetland zone" , explained the CEO of Total, Patrick Pouyanné.
Operators chose to build the plant on the islands rather than operate the wells via a platform at sea to reduce operating costs, when the expensive projects are rendered difficult to make profitable by the fall in prices hydrocarbons.

"This is a vote of confidence for the oil and gas industry offshore" in the North Sea, welcomed the British Minister of Energy, Amber Rudd, while it especially important to the Scottish economy has recently suffered waves job cuts.