St. Fergus
Encyclopedia
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, formerly in the county of Banffshire
Banffshire
The County of Banff is a registration county for property, and Banffshire is a Lieutenancy area of Scotland.The County of Banff, also known as Banffshire, was a local government county of Scotland with its own county council between 1890 and 1975. The county town was Banff although the largest...
. St Fergus lies a mile from the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast and three miles northwest of Peterhead
Peterhead
Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement , with a population of 17,947 at the 2001 Census and estimated to have fallen to 17,330 by 2006....
St Fergus is the landfall site for the FLAGS
FLAGS
The FLAGS pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in the North Sea which is used to transport liquids and associated gas from the following fields:* Cormorant A* North Cormorant* North West Hutton...
, Frigg
Frigg UK System
The Frigg UK System is a natural gas transportation system from the North Sea gas fields to St. Fergus near Peterhead in Scotland. It transports natural gas from the Alwyn North, Dunbar, Ellon, Grant, Nuggets, Frigg, Bruce, Ross, Captain, Buzzard, Tartan, Piper, Chanter, Galley, Hamish, Highlander,...
, Vesterled
Vesterled
Vesterled is a natural gas pipeline system, which runs from the Heimdal field in the North Sea to St Fergus Gas Plant near Peterhead in Scotland. The name Vesterled is the term used by the Vikings for their westward voyages, i.e...
, Miller, SAGE and Fulmar
Fulmar Gas Pipeline
The Fulmar Gas Line is a natural gas pipeline, which transports natural gas from the Central North Sea to St Fergus, Scotland. Originally, the pipeline carried natural gas from Fulmar and Clyde fields...
gas pipelines and a number of gas plants are located there. These include the St Fergus Gas Plant operated by Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and a British Gas
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
plant. In 1982 opened St Fergus Gas Plant, which receives and processes around 15% of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
gas demand from some 20 fields, is owned and operated by Total
Total S.A.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and...
.
History
There is considerable evidence of local habitation by prehistoric man in and around St Fergus. Somewhat to the southwest lies the Catto Long BarrowCatto Long Barrow
Catto Long Barrow is a prehistoric site in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The site is known locally as Cairn Catto. The extant monument extends for a length of 49 metres.-References:* United Kingdom Ordnance Survey Map 1:50,000 scale, Landranger series...
and a number of tumuli. Somewhat to the east lies the Longman Hill
Longman Hill
Longman Hill is a prehistoric monument in northern Aberdeenshire, Scotland near Banff Bay. Due to the low lying coastal plain characteristics, the elevation of Longman Hill affords a long distance view as far as the Moray Firth....
long barrow
Long barrow
A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...
.
Sources
- C. Michael Hogan (2008) Catto Long Barrow fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian