BP puts Sullom Voe gas processing plant plans on hold

The plant was due to be built at the Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland

BP has put on hold plans to build a £500m gas processing plant at Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland, BBC Scotland can reveal.

The oil giant has confirmed it is now looking at using existing equipment on site and offshore to process gas from the west of Shetland.

The gas "sweetening" plant was set to be built over the next three years.

It would have employed about 300 workers in the construction phase and created around 30 full-time jobs.

Local contractor DITT Construction, which has been undertaking preparation work at the terminal, will finish up next month.

The firm currently has 20 staff working on the development, of which about a dozen now face being made redundant.

Responding to the news, Shetland councillor Andrea Manson said: "I am really disappointed but not surprised because I think with the current price of oil they (BP) are looking to make savings wherever they possibly can, so maybe the gas sweetening plant has been a casualty of that.

"I would certainly hope that they would focus more on maintenance and repairs and keeping what we have here already going for as long as possible, which means they may have to ramp up the work that they are doing because for the last few years they have been doing very little because the gas sweetening plant was coming."