SHETLAND — Total’s huge new gas project in Britain’s Shetland Islands has been hailed by London as a "vote of confidence" in the flagging North Sea oil and gas industry.The French energy company on Monday officially opened the Shetland Gas Plant, which cost £3.5bn to build, in Britain’s northernmost outpost.Bringing in gas from the Laggan-Tormore fields, the plant began production in FebruaryIt has since ramped up to its full capacity of 500,000 cubic feet of gas (90,000 barrels of oil equivalent) per day.The fields are expected to last for about 20 years.The Scottish North Sea oil and gas sector has been reeling from a plunge in oil prices since mid-2014, leading the British government to cut taxes for the industry.Amber Rudd, the minister for energy and climate change, called the opening of the Shetland project a "vote of confidence in the offshore oil and gas industry".The plant was "creating jobs and providing secure, affordable energy to the UK’s families and businesses for dec...
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