New accommodation vessel
A NEW accommodation ship to house 500 construction workers completing the Shetland gas plant is due to arrive in Lerwick harbour in just over a week.
The SNAV Toscana will be the fourth accommodation vessel in the harbour when it berths at Lerwick’s Holmsgarth 5 jetty on 6 March, next to the Bibby Stockholm and Calmar barges already housing gas plant workers.
The 169 metre long former ferry is currently berthed at Naples, on the southern tip of Italy, and is due to start its journey north this weekend.
The move is a sign of chief contractor Petrofac ramping up work at the gas plant after down manning the construction site during the winter months to avoid bad weather that has helped delay the project’s completion.
Last summer Total insisted the construction would be completed by the end of 2014, but this week they said first gas would not be produced until the end of July, one year behind the original schedule.
The £800 million gas plant construction has not been a financial success for Petrofac, losing £160 million last year and earning no profit for the company this year.
The construction firm has blamed a long-running industrial dispute and “high winds and inclement weather” for the loss of 300 days of interruption to work.
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