OIL-RELATED activity at Lerwick harbour is showing a significant increase this year, the port’s bosses said yesterday.
They added that arrivals of energy-industry vessels, their tonnage and the amount of cargo handled were all up by more than half year-on-year during the first nine months of 2011.
Sustained activity in the third quarter brought the number of oil-related ships using the Shetland port between January and September to 426, up 55% on the comparable figure last year, while the tonnage increased 58% to 1.4million gross tonnes and the cargo by 55% to 64,875 tonnes.
Lerwick Port Authority chief executive Sandra Laurenson said: “The harbour’s valuable contribution to the offshore industry’s activities is reflected not only in the increasing traffic, but also in the continuing development of the port’s deepwater infrastructure to service operations and support future decommissioning projects.”
While the overall tonnage of vessels increased by 15% to 8.8million gross tonnes – reflecting larger ships using the harbour – arrivals were down 1.7% at 4,177, mainly because of to fewer fishing vessels.
The trend towards larger vessels, including the two biggest cruise ships to date, was highlighted by a 9.8% increase in the number of boats needing piloted into and out of the harbour.
Cruise ships brought in 30,747 passengers – slightly down on the record seen last year – but ferry travellers were up by 1.3% to 106,723.
Cargo shipped through the port was up a fraction at 622,562 tonnes.
Fish landings at 48,946 tonnes were worth £55.7million: down 26% by volume but up 4.8% by value.