Unplanned ‘trip’ results in fiery blowdown at gas plant
AN UNPLANNED “trip” resulted in some eye-catching flaring at the Shetland Gas Plant last Friday.
A spokesperson for operator TotalEnergies said the trip resulted in a “blowdown” which could be heard in the surrounding areas.
They added that normal operations were resumed shortly afterwards.
An unplanned blowdown is usually described as an unexpected emergency release of pressurised gas triggered by equipment failure.
TotalEnergies said that on this occasion that the “trip and associated blowdown were an unintended consequence following testing of plant safety systems”.
“Events of this nature are fully within the design operating limits of the plant,” the spokesperson added. “There was no safety concern.”
This is separate to the planned flaring which occasionally happens at the gas plant, with the public notified in advance.
The ‘blowdown’ comes just weeks after gas from the Shell-operated Victory field, to the north west of Shetland, started being piped to the plant.
TotalEnergies said that SEPA had been informed in line with the company’s regulatory reporting requirements.
The facility – which opened in 2016 – takes in gas from the Laggan and Tormore fields west of Shetland – the Greater Laggan Area (GLA) – before it sent by pipeline to the Scottish mainland.
Meanwhile, the sale of TotalEnergies’ 40 per cent share in the Greater Laggan Area, which comprises of the gas plant, the Laggan, Tormore, Glenlivit, Edradour and Glendronnach fields plus four exploration licences, to new operator SericaEnergy is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.
Total’s share was set to be sold to Prax, but this fell through when Prax Group’s parent company went into administration earlier in 2025.
However, Serica clinched a $25.6 million deal to buy Prax Upstream, which includes the deal to sell Total’s Greater Laggan Area share, but also the Lancaster field which was 100 per cent owned by Prax.
The other owners of the Greater Laggan area are Kistos (20 per cent), Ineos (20 per cent) and Viaro Energy (20 per cent).
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