St Fergus Terminal

Once extracted from the Frigg Field, the gas was transported to the processing plant at St Fergus for treatment and distribution to users throughout the UK.

Situated between Peterhead and Fraserburgh, most of the 160 workers employed when the terminal opened came from the local area. At its peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Frigg supplied Britain with a third of its gas requirements.

The terminal opened in September 1977 to process the gas brought ashore through the Frigg Pipeline from the UK Sector, with gas from the Norwegian sector following in 1978. Between 1982 and 1983 St Fergus was expanded to cope with the extra capacity created by the installation of compressors on MCP-01.

St Fergus only processed gas from the Frigg Field until 1987. As more North Sea gas fields came on stream in the 1980s, St Fergus was expanded and modified to be able to treat the different gas compositions of these other fields.

Although production from the Frigg Field ceased in October 2004, St Fergus is as busy as ever, processing about 36 million cubic metres of gas a day from twenty fields, supplying around 20% of the UK’s energy requirement.


St Fergus Terminal at night. (© Y-Ard Ltd), circa 1970s MS 3801/2/4/4

The Queen at St Fergus, 1978.
MS 3801/2/4/5/4
On 9th May 1978, Queen Elizabeth officially inaugurated the terminal, in front of representatives from the British and Norwegian governments, diplomats and the companies who owned and operated St Fergus. The royal party was given a tour of the terminal and met members of staff, as well as 800 local schoolchildren who had been invited for the occasion.

Simultaneous celebrations were held in Grosvenor House, London, and at the University of Aberdeen, where guests watched proceedings at St Fergus via a live satellite link.