SULLOM VOE

petroleum terminal and port in the north of the island of Mainland, Shetland Islands, Scotland. One of the largest facilities of its kind in Europe, Sullom Voe handled more than one-fourth of the United Kingdom's petroleum production in the late 1990s and employed about 500 people. Crude oil flows through an underwater pipeline from several North Sea oil fields located about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of the Shetland Islands to the onshore pipeline terminal at Sullom Voe, where huge tankers are loaded. The construction of the terminal and associated port and storage facilities, power station, and processing plant to separate gas from crude oil was one of the largest civil engineering projects in western Europe since World War II and one of the key achievements of the Scottish offshore petroleum industry.