Faroe links strengthened
ECONOMIC and political links between Shetland and Faroe have been strengthened during a two day visit to the Scandinavian islands this week.
Shetland Islands Council convener Sandy Cluness led a four man delegation that held discussions about broadband connections, transport links and energy projects during a hectic series of meetings.
As a result a new air link between Faroe and Sumburgh airport is to be discussed and the Faroese trade minister Bjarni Djurholm will visit Sullom Voe oil terminal in May regarding possible future oil and gas exports.
The main purpose of this week’s visit was to meet Faroya Telecom (FT) about the council’s new connection into the Faroese fibre optic cable that will bring superfast broadband to Lerwick this year.
Speaking from Aberdeen airport on Friday, SIC head of economic development Neil Grant said they had met FT’s senior management to arrange demonstration projects to show people in Shetland just what a fibre connection would offer.
“We want to gauge the appetite for high speed broadband in Shetland,” Mr Grant said.
They also heard about FT’s network of fibre optic connections to all the remote communities in the islands and Faroe’s mobile phone system – 200 phone masts compared to just nine in Shetland.
Mr Cluness said that Exxon and Statoil were currently drilling for oil just inside Faroese waters and that Faroe was interested in exporting that oil via Sullom Voe.
The convener said that there would soon be a meeting with Atlantic Airways and Loganair to discuss flight connections between the island groups, but after Smyril Line lost another £1 million last year any sea links were unlikely to restored in the foreseeable future.
There was a meeting with the civil engineering firm Articon who have won the contract to dredge Scalloway harbour this year. The delegation was shown several major construction projects the company is involved with, including a school and a care centre.
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Faroe is also interested in developing renewable energy and there was much discussion about the proposed Viking Energy wind farm in Shetland and the subsea cable that will export electricity if the project goes ahead.
Mr Grant said it had been an extremely successful trip that promised to strengthen the connections between the two island groups. “We achieved what we went up for and a lot more,” he said.
One subject that was kept off the table was the current dispute between Faroe and Europe about mackerel quotas.
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